Carboxylation of a polypentenamer and preparation of its hydrogenated derivatives

Carboxylated three-membered ring derivatives of a polypentenamer (PP) that contained 82% trans and 17% cis double bonds were prepared by carbene addition of ethyldiazoacetate with a copper catalyst to the double bonds and subsequent hydrogenation of the residual unsaturation. In this way derivatives that contained approximately either 5 or 10 mole % three-membered rings with ester side groups were obtained. These side groups were further reacted by hydrolysis or neutralization to form carboxylic acid and cesium salts of carboxylic acid. Reaction conditions were chosen so that no backbone degradation occurred and side reactions that led to crosslinking were avoided. The derivatives were characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. It was found that an increase in substituent concentration decreased the melting point (T_m) in hydrogenated derivatives and increased the glass transition temperature (T_g) in unhydrogenated derivatives. The cesium salts of carboxylic acid were the least thermally stable among those studied and the hydrogenated derivatives were generally more stable than the unhydrogenated.