SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A SERIES OF POLY(ALPHA,OMEGA-ALKYLDIYNES) AND COPOLY(ALPHA,OMEGA,-ALKYLDIYNES)

A series of poly(alpha,omega-alkyldiynes) and copoly(alpha,omega-alkyl diynes) were synthesized by catalytic Glaser coupling reactions. Two r outes were investigated and developed. These routes were chosen in ant icipation that high molar mass, linear and polydisperse, polymers woul d be achieved. GPC (gel permeation chromatography) curves revealed tha t this was possible for the majority of polymers synthesized by the fi rst route. However, a wide range of molar masses were obtained by the second route with a significant low molar mass tail present in almost all GPC curves. Very low M(n) (number average molar mass) values by GP C gave correspondingly very high M(n) values by end-group analysis (EG A). Hence, it was proposed that the low molar mass tail was a conseque nce of cyclic structures. From these results and observations a mechan ism for the polymerization of the alpha,omega-alkyldiynes was proposed .