Ionomers are polymers that contain a relatively small amount of ionic groups bonded to a neutral polymer backbone. The ionic groups self-assemble into ion-rich domains creating physical crosslinks that can greatly affect the material properties of the polymer. These physical crosslinks are reversible under heat and mechanical stress, and it is the strength and nature of the ionic bond that largely determines how the material will respond. The temperature at which ion-hopping and crosslink reorganization will occur depends on the glass transition temperature of the ion-rich domains. Using phosphonium-containing cations and sulfonate-containing anions, we have generated homopolymers of varying molecular weight (5,000 - 100,000 g/mol). H-NMR was used to identify the products. The glass transition temperature of the ionomers was found using differential scanning calorimetry. To determine the effects of the varying molecular weight (MW) on the glass transition temperature (Tg) we plotted Tg vs. MW, and saw the trend that as MW increased the Tg increased.

Effect of molecular weight and acrylate ratio on glass transition temperature of ionomers

255th National Meeting (2018)

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