mz7b00450_si_001.pdf (87.98 kB)
High Morphological Order in a Nearly Precise Acid-Containing Polymer and Ionomer
journal contribution
posted on 2017-08-16, 16:21 authored by Edward
B. Trigg, Brandon J. Tiegs, Geoffrey W. Coates, Karen I. WineyLinear
polyethylenes with functional groups at precise intervals
along the backbone possess a number of remarkable properties, but
the current synthetic methods that produce these precise polymers
are difficult to scale up beyond the laboratory setting. When evaluating
alternative synthetic routes, a critical question is how precise must
the polymer microstructure be to achieve the properties of interest?
As a first step in answering this question, we present morphological
characterization of a nearly precise polymerthat
is, an acid-containing polymer wherein the acid groups are separated
by either n or n + 1 methylene groups.
We find that the size scale and uniformity of the amorphous morphologies
of the nearly precise acid-containing polymer and its sodium-neutralized
ionomer are essentially indistinguishable from the precise polymers
based on X-ray scattering. Meanwhile, the nearly precise polymer is
strikingly distinct from a pseudorandom copolymer with similar average
composition. This result suggests that the properties of nearly precise
polymers could likewise be quite similar to truly precise polymers
and beckons future work to explore their properties.