Nanostructured alkene-carbon monoxide terpolymers: New materials via a pulse-feed-polymerization technique

The present paper reports on a novel family of ethene/CO-propene/CO-block terpolymers, with propene/CO contents up to 75 mol-%. These materials are not accessible by conventional copolymerization protocols, due to the high rate of polymerization of E/CO relative to P/CO. Therefore, a new polymerization procedure was developed that comprises a discontinuous addition of ethene/CO to an active propene/CO copolymerization reaction (“pulse-feed-polymerization”). This strategy affords the formation of block-copolymers with precise control over the crystallizable ECO segments, leading to excellent thermoplastic elastomers. Synthesis, structural characterization and some of the mechanical properties of this new materials are discussed.