Ponsubha Sivabalan, a graduate student from the Department of Chemistry & Biomolecular Science, Clarkson University will present “Cyclopolymerization of Methacrylic Anhydride & the Potential for Dynamic Polythioester Networks”.
Friday, October 27, 2023
3:30 PM, BH Snell Hall 214, Potsdam Campus
Zoom Information: Link
Meeting ID: 950 1099 7564
Passcode: chemistry
Abstract:
Cyclopolymers that contain anhydride moieties can be tailored to create new polymer materials that have mechanical and rheological properties that can be altered through the activation of latent crosslinking chemistries embedded in the side chains of the cyclopolymers. Such polymers contain dynamic covalent chemistries (DCCs) that are intramolecularly contained, thereby providing the latency needed to induce or remove crosslinking. While intramolecular DCC can be achieved in a number of different ways, significant advantages can be gained by polymerizing monomers that undergo extensive cyclopolymerization because (a) examples of such monomers are already commercially available, and (b) this provides an avenue in which the formation of linear polymer chains can be made by optimizing kinetic vs. thermodynamic control over the propagation process. Methacrylic anhydride (MAA) is one such monomer that has the anhydride moieties’ dynamic covalent exchange (DCE) capacity, which enables the rearrangement of the polymer structure. This presentation will primarily focus on the cyclopolymerization of MAA and the in-depth characterization of the resulting poly(methacrylic anhydride) (PMAA) microstructure. Utilizing comonomers in addition to MAA allows for fine-tuning of the thermal and mechanical properties of polymers and thus copolymerization of MAA with comonomers such as methyl methacrylate (MMA), butyl methacrylate (BMA), and n-butyl acrylate (n-BA) will also be presented. Finally, the development of covalent adaptable networks (CANs) based on polythioester networks based on PMAA will also be discussed.
