A new polymeric intermediate for the synthesis of hybrid inorganic-organic polymers

A new approach to the synthesis of inorganic-organic macromolecules that provides access to a broad range of new polymers with unique and potentially useful properties was investigated. The new synthetic route via the polymerization of mono(5-norborene-2-methoxy)pentachloro cyclotriphosphazene provides several advantages over existing pathways of inorganic-organic hybrid molecules. A delayed substitution of the initial phosphazene block is particularly beneficial when the final phosphazene pendant unit will bear highly polar or sterically bulky side groups that could affect the efficiency or rate of polymerization. The number of repeating units in each block and the polymer architecture are unaffected because nucleophilic halogen replacement is carried out after the completion of the copolymerization. The results show that intermediates can be utilized via one-pot syntheses to produce a variety of polymer architectures such as diblock, multiblock, and linear polymers.