Design of Bis(imidazole) Monomers for Step-Growth Polymerizations

Title:  Design of Bis(imidazole) Monomers for Step-Growth Polymerizations

Frank Foley, J. David Roveda, Jason E. Bara

Imidazole is a planar five member ring. It is aromatic and amphoteric, and serves as a versatile building block for a variety of materials. Various substituents can be added at the 1,2,4 and/or 5s positions as a means of controlling the physical and chemical properties. We have produced a number of bis(imidazole) compounds via reaction of various imidazole cores with p-dicholorxylene. These compounds serve as “A-A” monomers which can then be polymerized via reaction with an additional stoichiometric equivalent of p-dichloroxylene to form imidazolium-based polymeric “ionenes”.  The properties of the resultant ionenes can be correlated with the structure of the imidazolium ring within the polymerbackbone.  Initial experimental evidence and molecule modeling suggests that these imidazolium ionenes can adopt helical structures which may promote supramolecular assembly and provide unique properties for the separation of CO2 from industrial gas streams.