1,4-Regulated Thermoplastic Elastomers

A series of 3-methylenecyclopentene (MCP) based block polymers are prepared by sequential polymerization of MCP, isoprene (IP) and/or butadiene (BD) by using rare-earth metal cationic catalyst. The resulting block copolymers are constituted by 1,4-poly(MCP), cis- 1,4-poly(IP) and cis-1,4-poly(BD), which afforded AB type, ABA-type and ABC type copolymers. The AFM micrographs of triblock copolymer showed a remarkable phase-separation morphology of the 1,4-poly(MCP) block and cis-1,4-poly(IP).