In-situ monitoring of cyclic olefin ring-opening metathesis polymerization by Raman spectroscopy: An effective tool for functional polymer and copolymer design

Kinetics of ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of cyclic olefins and their functional derivatives using Grubbs catalysts have been effectively monitored via Raman spectroscopy. By attaching detection optic fiber probe of the Raman spectrometer onto transparent reactor, the real-time concentration of monomers can be rapidly determined by the Raman intensity ratio between monomer characteristic bands and internal reference bands. Raman was shown to be an effective and straightforward tool to monitor and understand the ROMP process of homo-polymerization, and also could provide quantitative prediction of the functional group (–OH) incorporation ratio as well as the molecular weight distribution in copolymerization of cyclooctene and 5-norbornene-2-methanol. This analytical method enable an in-situ measurement of monomer and polymer composition during the reaction, and provide fundamental understanding for novel polymer/copolymers design.