High‐temperature elastomers from silarylene‐siloxane‐diacetylene linear polymers

The syntheses and characterization of linear silarylene‐siloxane‐diacetylene polymers 3a–c and their thermal conversion to crosslinked elastomeric materials 4a–c are discussed. Inclusion of the diacetylene unit required synthesis of an appropriate monomeric species. 1,4‐Bis(dimethylaminodimethylsilyl)butadiyne [(CH 3 ) 2 N Si(CH 3 ) 2 CCCC(CH 3 ) 2 SiN(CH 3 ) 2 ] 2 was prepared from 1,4‐dilithio‐1,3‐butadiyne and 2 equiv of dimethylaminodimethylchlorosilane. The linear polymers were prepared via polycondensation of 2 with a series of disilanol prepolymers. The low molecular weight silarylene‐siloxane prepolymers 1a–c (terminated by hydroxyl groups) were synthesized via solution condensation of an excess amount of 1,4‐bis(hydroxydimethylsilyl)benzene with bis(dimethylamino)dimethylsilane. The linear polymers were characterized by 1 H and 13 C NMR, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and DSC. The elastomers exhibited long‐term oxidative stability up to 330 °C in air as determined by TGA.