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Updated: Sep 5, 2025

Depolymerizable Olefinic Polymers Based on Fused-Ring Cyclooctene Monomers
Published on: December 16, 2022
Orthogonally deconstructable and depolymerizable polysilylethers via entropy-driven ring-opening metathesis
Alayna M Johnson1, Keith E L Husted1, Landon J Kilgallon1
1Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. jaj2109@mit.edu.
Abstract:
The synthesis of novel polysilylethers via entropy-driven ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ED-ROMP) of cyclic bifunctional silyl ether-based monomers is reported. These polymers display good thermal stability and ultra-low Tg (-88 °C). Moreover, they are rapidly deconstructable via the cleavage of the silicon-oxygen linkages with acid or fluoride triggers, and they were partially depolymerizable by the addition of exogenous metathesis catalyst. Analysis of the deconstructed polymer products provided insight into the polymer microstructure, showing that the ED-ROMP process was regiorandom. Altogether, this work offers a new class of deconstructable polymers with a range of potential applications.
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