An efficient and mild route to highly fluorinated polyolefins via copolymerization of ethylene and 5-perfluoroalkylnorbornenes

Abstract

A series of fluorinated polyolefins have been efficiently synthesized via the copolymerization of ethylene with 5-(perfluoro-n-alkyl)norbornenes by employing a class of [ONS] titanium catalysts, which possess an open coordination space environment and exhibit excellent tolerance towards fluorine atoms and excellent catalytic activity (up to 1.60 × 10⁶ g (mol h atm)⁻¹). Fluorinated polyolefins with high fluorine contents (up to 44.0 wt%) and high molecular weights (3.5–15.9 × 10⁴ g mol⁻¹) could be obtained under mild conditions. DSC analysis indicated that incorporation of the fluorinated comonomers into polyethylene significantly influences the crystallinity of the polymers (T_m), while it has little influence on the polymer stability.