Precision, Tunable Deuterated Polyethylene via Polyhomologation

Published

July 22, 2019

Author(s)

Wesley Farrell, Sara Orski, Anthony Kotula, Kathryn Beers, Daniel Baugh

Abstract

Polyhomologation (also known as "C1 polymerization") of a deuterated ylide has been performed, which yields linear polyethylene of high deuterium content. Copolymerization with the protonated analog allows for the preparation of sta-tistical copolymers, in which linear polyethylene with a uniform and tunable amount of deuterium is obtained. The amount of deuterium present, as well as its uniform distribution, is supported by vibrational spectroscopy, size-exclusion chromatography with infrared detection, and 2H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This technique was extended to prepare a precision triblock copolymer in which the chain-ends are selectively deuterated. All polymers re-ported are of narrow dispersity, and will find use in myriad measurements sensitive to deuterium labeling, most notably small-angle neutron scattering.

Citation

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Volume

52

Issue

15

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.9b00500

Local Download

Keywords

Polyethylene, Polyolefins, Deuterium-Labeling

Citation

Farrell, W. , Orski, S. , Kotula, A. , Beers, K. and Baugh, D. (2019), Precision, Tunable Deuterated Polyethylene via Polyhomologation, Journal of the American Chemical Society, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.9b00500, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=926318 (Accessed October 28, 2025)