Scalable Synthetic Route to PDMS Ring Polymers in High Yields from Commercially Available Materials Using the Piers-Rubinsztajn Reaction.

While cyclic polymers have intrigued researchers for their novel set of architecture-driven rheological interactions, the possibility of incorporating them in topological systems has been limited by the availability of large ring polymers. Thus, the need for scalable methods to produce ring polymers has become apparent. Here, a facile method to prepare polysiloxane ring polymers by means of Piers-Rubinsztajn chemistry is presented.

Novel polyrotaxane cross-linkers as a versatile platform for slide-ring silicone.

Slide-ring elastomers have garnered a lot of interest for their potential use in dielectric elastomer actuators due to their intrinsically soft nature and high elasticity. However, the use of sliding cross-linkers has been constrained by their low miscibility with commonly used elastomer precursors and the specialized curing chemistries that are necessary for incorporating them into networks. Here, we have presented a method to produce vinyl functional polyrotaxane cross-linkers that are compatible with polysiloxanes and can be processed by industrially scalable methods.