Macromolecules, Vol.41, No.10, 3613-3619, 2008
Thiol-functionalized poly(omega-pentadecalactone) telechelics for semicrystalline polymer networks
Semicrystalline macromonomers based on poly(pentadecalactone), PPDL, have been synthesized by the lipase-catalyzed ring-opening of the otherwise chemically inert pentadecalactone monomer. The macromonomers were designed to have reactive thiols as end groups by the appropriate choice of initiator and chain terminator. The thiol functional macromonomers were then used together with ene monomers to give crosslinked thin films after irradiation in the molten state by UV light in the presence of a photoinitiator (Irgacure 65 1). Two different ene monomers were used, i.e., a tetrafunctional norbornene species and a trifunctional allyl ether maleate species, and resulted in semicrystalline cured films when cured with PPDL. An amorphous, commercially available, trifunctional thiol, trimethylolpropane tri(3-mercaptopropionate), TRIS, was also used for network formation in order to better understand the effect of crystallinity. All thiol-ene systems were found to be readily photopolymerised to high conversion. The PPDL-based networks were semicrystalline in the crosslinked state where the degree of crystallinity was found to depend on the nature of the cross-linker. Networks based on TRIS were found to be amorphous.