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New polymer architectures: Recent results with polyrotaxanes
Author(s) -
Gibson Harry W.,
Gong Caiguo,
Liu Shu,
Nagvekar Devdatt
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.19981280111
Subject(s) - materials science , polymer , elastomer , rotaxane , polymer science , polyester , rheology , macromolecule , polymer chemistry , polymerization , polyurethane , chemical engineering , molecule , chemistry , composite material , supramolecular chemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , engineering
Recent results from our laboratory have shown that the formation of polyester and Polyurethane rotaxanes by polymerization in the presence of crown ethers is driven by hydrogen bonding of the OH groups with the oxygen atoms of the macrocycles. Here we summarize these findings. Then we describe the application of this type of self assembly for the production of polyrotaxanes by threading preformed macromolecules and for the controlled synthesis of branched and crosslinked systems. These latter protocols comprise a new and novel way to prepare mechanically linked, elastomeric materials. Rheological properties of main chain polyrotaxanes are compared to simple linear backbones; the rotaxanes display higher intrinsic viscosities and lower melt viscosities, reflecting larger hydrodynamic volumes and less entanglement, respectively; these are potentially useful aspects in terms of processability of this new class of polymeric materials.