Macromolecular engineering via carbocationic polymerization: Branched structures, block copolymers and nanostructures

This article features macromolecular engineering via carbocationic polymeri zation, the focus of research of the recently established Macromolecular En gineering Research Centre (MERC) at the University of Western Ontario. The fundamental philosophy of MERC is interdisciplinary research with a strong industrial orientation, while emphasizing the quest for fundamental underst anding of polymerization processes and polymer structure-property relations hips. First, a brief overview of living polymerizations in particular will be given. This latter technique is of interest because some monomers (e.g., isobutylene) can be polymerizes by cationic techniques only, to yield poly mers with unique properties (e.g, polyisobutylene with superior chemical an d oxidative stability, low permeability and high damping). This will be fol lowed ny an overview of our research strategy and a summary of our latest r esults. These include the development of a fiber-optic mid-FTIR method for the real-time monitoring of low temperature polymerization processes, the d iscovery that selected epoxides initiate effectively the living carbocation ic polymerization of isobutylene, fundamental studies into the mechanism an d kinetics of living carbocationic polymerization, and the design and synth esis of various polymer architectures (e.g., branched homo- ans block copol ymers) with improved properties and nanostructured phase morphologies.