Facile Synthesis of Hydroxy‐Functionalized Cycloolefin Copolymer Using ω‐Alkenylaluminium as a Comonomer

Copolymerization of norbornene and 7‐octenyldiisobutylaluminium is conducted by the catalytic system of ansa‐dimethylsilylene(fluorenyl)(amido)dimethyltitanium, Me2Si(NtBu)(fluorenyl)TiMe2 (1), activated with Ph3CB(C6F5)4 to produce copolymers with pendant alkylaluminium groups. The termination of the copolymers with methanol gives poly(norbornene‐co‐oct‐1‐ene). Termination with oxygen gas gives poly(norbornene‐co‐oct‐1‐ene‐co‐oct‐7‐en‐1‐ol) because the oxidation of the pendant alkylaluminium groups with oxygen is not quantitative. Terpolymerization of norbornene, oct‐1‐ene, and 7‐octenyldiisobutylaluminium are also conducted, where the content of the hydroxy groups and the glass transition temperature are independently controlled by the molar ratio of each comonomer in feed. image