Oxetane Derivatives and Their Polymers for Designing Functional Polymers Containing a Soft, Somewhat Polar Polyether Network as a Polymer Support

Abstract

Abstract Several oxetane derivatives having functional groups, such as ester, ketone, ether, acetal, and azo, at the end of 2-oxapolymethylene spacers which were linked to the C-3 carbon of an oxetane ring were readily prepared by a substitution reaction of the corresponding bromide of the oxetane. These oxetanes were polymerized by cationic ring-opening polymerization to give their polymers with molecular weights ranging from 16000 to 1000, depending on the structure of the functional group of the monomer used. When using bisoxetanes as a cross-linking agent in the above polymerization, insoluble resins containing soft, somewhat polar polyether networks as a polymer support were obtained. Some chemical reactions of the pendant functional groups were also examined for the oxetane derivatives and their polymers.