Polyethylene telechelics with two reactive endgroups are attractive building blocks, but their limited accessibility to date is a strong limitation. This contribution discusses two convenient novel routes to strictly linear α,ω-difunctional polyethylene telechelics. Via direct selective insertion polymerization, in a mixture of ethylene and a functional comonomer the latter is incorporated exclusively in endgroups while the crystallizable backbone is composed only of ethylene. For the case of vinyl furane comonomer, a fidelity in both initiating and terminating endgroups of &gt; 90 % are achieved. A mechanistic understanding rationalizes these findings and identifies the generic requirements for such a selective monomer reactivity. An alternative approach is the chain doubling of fatty acid feedstocks. From common plant oils, by an iterative sequence of olefin metathesis and selective isomerization ultra-long chain building blocks are obtained. For example, from erucic acid in once cycle C48 α,ω-dicarboxylic acid is obtained in high yield and purity by this scalable method. The properties of these telechelics and further their utilization for polymer materials synthesis are discussed.

α,ω-Difunctional polyethylene telechelics through functional group tolerant catalysis

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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