| Abstract: | p-tert-Butylphenol acetaldehyde resins can have isotactic, syndiotactic, and atactic sequences. Structural characteristics of the p-tert-butylphenol acetaldehyde resin with different tacticities were studied using molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics. Trimer–decamer isotactic and syndiotactic resins and 12 stereoisomers of a hexamer were calculated. In the p-tert-butylphenol acetaldehyde resin, the hydroxyl groups cluster in the center of the molecule through intramolecular hydrogen bonding and the tert-butyl groups are extended out. It has been found that the energy-minimized structures of the isotactic resin are more stable than those of the syndiotactic resin by 7–17 kcal/mol. From the results of molecular dynamics at 303, 373, 474, and 573 K for 300 ps, the isotactic resin was also found to be more stable than the syndiotactic resin. For atactic resins, the closer to isotactic their structures are, the more stable they are. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 36: 1355–1361, 1998 |
