AMINE-TERMINAL POLYSTYRENES - A NEW STRATEGY FOR SYNTHESIS AND NEW METHODS FOR DETERMINATION OF FUNCTIONALITY

Polymers bearing a single alkyl chloride at the chain end were synthes ized using anionic polymerization techniques. Specifically, living pol ystyrene (PS) anions were treated with commercially available (4-chlor obutyl)dimethylchlorosilane and found to react chemoselectively at the electrophilic silicon atom.(1) The pendant alkyl chloride on these PS chains was subsequently transformed into alkyl azide and aliphatic am ine functionalities. The gel permeation chromatograms for the synthesi zed polymers were found to have relatively narrow molecular weight dis tributions (M-w/M-n < 1.09) after the end-capping reaction. Nuclear ma gnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) studies were used to quantify the degree of functionalization.