Copolymerization of 5-norbornene-2-metheneoxy-trimethylsilyl with methyl 5-norbornene-2-carboxylate catalyzed by a novel Ni(benzocyclohexan-ketonaphthylimino)2/B(C6F5)3) system
Abstract Copolymerization of 5-norbornene-2-metheneoxy-trimethylsilyl [NB-CH2OSi(CH3)3] with norbornene (NB) or methyl 5-norbornene-2-carboxylate (NB-COOCH3) was carried out in toluene by using novel nickel(II) complex catalyst systems, Ni(benzocyclohexan-ketonaphthylimino)2/B(C6F5)3 [Ni(bchkni)2/B(C6F5)3]. The catalyst system showed high activity on the copolymerization of NB-CH2OSi(CH3)3 with NB (2.3–3.3×104 gpolymer/molNi·h) and NB-CH2OSi(CH3)3 with NB-COOCH3(0.5–3.0×104 gpolymer/molNi·h). However, the solubility of copolymers of NB-CH2OSi(CH3)3 with NB and NB-CH2OSi(CH3)3 with NB-COOCH3, which contain 18.7–86.7 mol% of NB-CH2OSi(CH3)3, was too poor to characterize. The achieved copolymers were confirmed to be vinyl-addition copolymers through the analysis of FTIR, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR spectra. The incorporation rate was 8.7–86.7 mol% at a content of 10–90 mol% of the NB-CH2OSi(CH3)3 in the monomer feeds ratios. The obtained ester functionalized NB copolymer containing 8.7–18.7 mol% of NB-CH2OSi(CH3)3 showed a moderate molecular weight (Mw=1.6–6.0×104 g/mol) and relative narrow molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn=1.6–2.2). Thermogravimetry (TGA) analyses results showed that the copolymers exhibited good thermal stability (Td=330–350°C) and were noncrystalline by WAXD analyses results.