Efficient introduction of aromatic vinyl group by incorporation of divinylbiphenyl, p‐divinylbenzene in syndiospecific styrene polymerization using aryloxo‐modified half‐titanocene catalysts

An efficient introduction of aromatic vinyl group into syndiotactic polystyrene has been achieved by incorporation of 3,3′-divinylbiphenyl, p-divinylbenzene (DVB) in syndiospecific styrene polymerization using aryloxo-modified half-titanocenes, Cp′TiCl2(O-2,6-iPr2C6H3) (Cp′ = tBuC5H4, 1,2,4-Me3C5H2), in the presence of MAO. The resultant polymers possessed high molecular weights with uniform molecular weight distributions, and the DVB contents could be varied by the initial feed molar ratios (6–23 mol %) without decrease in the Mn values. The syndiotactic stereo-regularity and presence of the vinyl groups were confirmed by NMR spectra. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016, 54, 1902–1907