Well-defined polyethylene molecular brushes by polyhomologation and ring opening metathesis polymerization

A novel strategy using polyhomologation and ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) has been developed for the synthesis of well-defined polyethylene (PE) molecular brushes. Polyhomologation was used to afford an OH-terminated PE, which after transformation to the norbornyl PE macromonomer was subjected to ROMP. Kinetics of ROMP of the PE macromonomer was studied by in situ¹H NMR monitoring. The brush structure was proved from HT-GPC, ¹H NMR and DSC results.