Utilizing Metathesis Polymerization for Polymer Design

Modern polymer materials currently have limited end-of-life applications, emphasizing the need for sustainable next generation materials. Our particular area of interest is cationic allylic amine polymers, which have versatile applications in areas such as water filtration membranes. Previous work in the Zhukhovitskiy group has shown that polybutadiene rubber can be chemically recycled through allylic amination followed by the aza-Cope rearrangement. However, the low percent functionalization inhibits the formation of value-added small molecules, and instead, oligomeric chains of varying lengths are formed and utilized in epoxy resins. This work aims to synthesize novel homoallylic amine electrolyte polymers that we hypothesize can be chemically upcycled into pyridine derivatives through the aza-Cope rearrangement for a more complete life cycle.