The use of deuterium labelling in conjunction with small angle neutron scattering (SANS) provides a powerful method to probe the confirmation of semicrystalline polymers, especially in regard to tie-chain estimation. Although polyethylene is the most widely consumed polyolefin, and such investigations are of great industrial interest, preparation of polyethylene with deuterium labeling has been challenging historically, either not allowing for high degrees of deuteration, or not permitting labeling of selective portions of the polymer chain, such as chain-ends. In this work, we have demonstrated the use of polyhomologation to prepare well-defined polyethylene with a controllable amount of deuteration which is uniform across the molar mass distribution. This initial investigation has been extended to include selective deuterium labeling of chain-ends as well, which will allow for identification of chain-ends in semicrystalline polyethylene by SANS. Furthermore, the deuterated polyethylene produced is hydroxy-terminated, making these ideal candidates for the preparation of functional deuterated polyethylene.

Selective deuteration of polyethylene via polyhomologation

2019 Spring National Meeting

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