Synthesis of 1‐hexene/1,7‐octadiene copolymers using coordination polymerization and postfunctionalization with triethoxysilane

Homo‐ and copolymerization of 1‐hexene (H) and 1,7‐octadiene (O) were done using two different catalysts 1,4‐bis(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)acenaphthenediiminedibromo nickel (II) and rac ‐ethylenebis(indenyl)zirconium dichloride [ rac ‐Et(Ind) 2 ZrCl 2 ]. The metallocene catalyst showed higher activity than the nickel α ‐diimine catalyst in homo‐ and copolymerization. The 1 H NMR studies confirmed the formation of copolymers containing 8–47% of 1,7‐octadiene. In the copolymerization of hexene and diene, as the amount of incorporated diene in the copolymers increased, their T g increased. TGA results showed that thermal stability of the polymer increases with the increase of 1‐hexene incorporation in the polymer chain. Finally 1‐hexene/1,7‐octadiene copolymers were functionalized by triethoxysilane in the presence of hexachloroplatinic acid. The 1 H NMR spectrum of the functionalized samples showed that the double bonds in the copolymer structure were completely eliminated. The DSC analysis showed higher T g s for the functionalized copolymer. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137 , 48934.