Development of novel fluorinated high performance polymers and new biomaterials from renewable resources

New type of high performance polymers, hexafluoroisopropylidene (HFIP)-linked benzophenone polymers, have been synthesized by the Ni(0)-catalyzed coupling polymerization of newly designed bis(aryl triflate) and bis(aryl halide) monomers. New synthetic strategy based on Ni(0)-catalyzed copolymerization has also been developed in order to prepare materials with higher molecular weight and optimized thermal and mechanical properties. The unique structural characteristics of these novel polymers make them potentially interesting candidates for gas separation applications, as well as for electrical applications, such as nonvolatile organic memory.; Vegetable oils represent one of the most abundant annually renewable resources in the world today. Utilization of these materials as building blocks for the synthesis of new bioplastics has been described. A variety of promising new polymeric materials, ranging from soft rubbers to hard, tough and rigid plastics have been prepared by the cationic copolymerization of vegetable oils and a range of alkenes initiated by boron trifluoride diethyl etherate. The chemical, physical, thermal and mechanical properties of these polymers have been investigated as a function of the resin composition. Vegetable oil and alkene comonomer reactivities have a direct effect on most of the polymers' properties, which can be reasonably predicted by careful choice of both types of the reactants and the catalyst. The resulting polymers possess good thermal and mechanical properties, including good damping and shape memory properties. As such, these new biomaterials appear promising as replacements for a variety of petroleum-based polymers.; A [RhCl(C8H8)2]2 is a highly efficient and selective isomerization catalyst for the production of highly conjugated vegetable oils with a high conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content. These conjugated products are of great importance in the food, paint, coating, and polymer industries. The elucidation of structural isomers formed during the homogeneous rhodium-catalyzed isomerization of several vegetable oils has been described. The correlation between the distribution of the conjugated isomers, reaction kinetics and the mechanism of the reaction has also been investigated. The high efficiency and selectivity of this isomerization method along with the straightforward purification process renders this approach highly promising for the preparation of conjugated oils and CLA.