Metallopolymers have a wide variety of applications in materials science, health care, and energy. The use of metallopolymers for these applications depends on the availability of polymerizable ligands that can bind a wide variety of transition metals. Ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) has been used for the controlled polymerization of cyclic alkene monomers. ROMP has the advantage of being tolerant of a wide variety of functional groups because of the stability of the Grubbs 3rd generation catalyst (G3). We aim to take advantage of these properties to prepare new metallopolymer materials. This will be accomplished through the preparation of monomers featuring coordinating ligands such as pyridine, bipyridine, and acetylacetonate. This poster will describe the preparation of first-of-their-kind 4-pyridine functionalized ROMP polymers. This was accomplished by protonating the pyridine monomer to prevent the coordinating ligand from blocking the active site of G3. Additionally, we have studied the co-polymerization of this pyridinium monomer with a small library of monomers bearing pendant ethanol, phenol, and tertiary amine functional groups. The polymerization kinetics of this new 4-pyridine monomer was measured for homo- and co-polymerization reactions by NMR to determine the various grafting density and distributions of these complexes. The distribution of the monomers and the length of these homo- and co-polymers will be supported with the analysis by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight MS (MALDI-TOF). These monomers will enable the installation of pendent coordination complexes into the polymer backbone either through post-polymerization metal coordination or by direct polymerization of metallomonomer complexes. These 4-pyridine functionalized ROMP polymers will be investigated for their use in applications such as drug delivery and photodynamic therapy.

Homo- and co-polymerization of 4-pyridine functionalized ROMP polymers for metallopolymer materials

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.