Intellectual Property Office
Non-Confidential Disclosures
“Polyphosphazene Polymers”
PSU Inv. Disc. No 2148
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Keywords
Polyphosphazene; functionalized polymers
Links:
US Patent 6,392,008
Inventor Website
Inventors:
Harry Allcock, Christine deDenus, Scott Reeves
Background:
Polyphosphazene-containing polymers have been used in applications in the field of biomedical materials, conductive polymers, and elastomers. Polyphosphazene-containing polymers are also of general interest because of their capability to combine with another polymer, either organic or inorganic, incorporating the properties and advantages of the two polymer components without sacrificing the overall chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of each component. For instance, the synthesis of hybrid block and graft copolymers of polyphosphazenes and polystyrene is a way to combine the attributes of both polymers and generate new properties. Many of the valuable properties of the respective phosphazene and styrene homopolymers can be combined without sacrificing the overall solid state or solution properties of both polystyrene and polyphosphazene polymers. Thus far, efforts to combine polyphosphazenes with another polymer backbone to form a copolymer to take advantage of the attributes of each component has had only very limited success. Moreover, until recently, the preparation of block copolymers containing polyphosphazenes, has been limited to species with two phosphazene components. The synthesis of telechelic polyphosphazenes which may be used to couple with preformed organic polymers has proved to be difficult. Traditionally, block copolymers have been synthesized via sequential polymerization of different monomers. However, the limited number of compatible initiating monomers places limits on the number of copolymers that can be synthesized by the sequential method. It therefore would be advantageous to develop an approach that can readily incorporate polyphosphazenes along with other polymeric systems to yield copolymers having the advantages of both polymeric components. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide methods for the synthesis of telechelic polyphosphazenes for the purposes of making polyphosphazene-containing organic-inorganic copolymers.
Invention description:
Compositions of polyphosphazene-containing polymers and methods of preparation thereof are provided. The disclosed compositions encompass telechelic functionalized polyphosphazenes and a variety of block and graft polyphosphazene-polystyrene, polyphosphazene-polysiloxane, and polyphosphazene-ROMP of norbornene copolymers. Methods for the preparation of such compositions generally involve generation of a polydichlorophosphazene species, attachment of a function group to the resultant polyphosphazene compound, and coupling the functionalized polyphosphazene with a corresponding organic or inorganic polymers or polymerizing the functionalized polyphosphazene with corresponding organic molecules.
Contact:
Bradley A. Swope
Sr. Technology Licensing Officer
Intellectual Property Office
113 Technology Center
The Pennsylvania State Univ.
University Park, PA 16802-7000
Phone: (814) 863-5987
Fax: (814) 865-3591
E-mail:bradswope@psu.edu |
