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Updated: May 18, 2026

Ethylene Polymerizations Using Parallel Pressure Reactors and a Kinetic Analysis of Chain Transfer Polymerization
Published on: November 27, 2015
Side-chain modification and "grafting onto" via olefin cross-metathesis
Lucas Montero de Espinosa1, Kristian Kempe, Ulrich S Schubert
1Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Organic Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Weg 6, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
Abstract:
Olefin cross-metathesis is introduced as a versatile polymer side-chain modification technique. The reaction of a poly(2-oxazoline) featuring terminal double bonds in the side chains with a variety of functional acrylates has been successfully performed in the presence of Hoveyda-Grubbs second-generation catalyst. Self-metathesis, which would lead to polymer-polymer coupling, can be avoided by using an excess of the cross-metathesis partner and a catalyst loading of 5 mol%. The results suggest that bulky acrylates reduce chain-chain coupling due to self-metathesis. Moreover, different functional groups such as alkyl chains, hydroxyl, and allyl acetate groups, as well as an oligomeric poly(ethylene glycol) and a perfluorinated alkyl chain have been grafted with quantitative conversions.
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