Preparation of telechelic oligomers by controlled thermal degradation of isotactic poly(1-butene) and poly (propylene-ran-1--butene)

It was found that telechelic isotactic oligo(l-butene) and telechelic oligo(propylene-ran-1-butene) Could be isolated as nonvolatile oligomers from polymer residues resulting from the thermal degradation of isotactic poly(I-butene) and poly (propylene-ran-1-butene), respectively. Their structures were determined by H-1 and C-13 NMR with attention being paid to their reactive end groups. The maximum average number of terminal vinylidene groups per molecule (f(TVD)) was 1.8, indicating that about 80 mol% were alpha,omega-diene oligomers having two terminal vinylidene This useful new telechelic oligomer had a lower polydispersity than the original polymer, in spite of its lower molecular weight and T-m. groups. The composition of end groups of nonvolatile oligomers obtained by thermal degradation of poly(propylene-ran-1-butene) could be explained by the differences in bond dissociation energy and activation energy of elementary reactions during thermal degradation, based on the monomer composition of the original polymer. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.