Polymer network comprised of steroidal rotors as promising storage material

Let's make molecular rotors more attractive! Rotary motion has various applications such as measuring viscosity in biological systems, or in polymers. This Publication provides the methodology of a unique porous organic material production. Polymeric network with acrylate units forming the main chain and molecular rotors as a crosslinking medium is found to exhibit one of the key feature of molecular machines as dynamic process.

Abstract

In this paper, we report a new generation of polymeric networks as potential functional material based on changes in molecular dynamics in the solid state. The material is obtained by free radical polymerization of a diacrylate derivative bearing a steroid (stator) and a 1,4-diethynyl-phenylene-d₄ fragment (rotator). Polymer research using the PALS technique complements the knowledge about nanostructural changes occurring in the system in the temperature range −115 °C – +190 °C. It indicates the presence of two types of free nanovolumes in the system and the occurrence of phase transitions. The polymer is characterized using ¹H NMR, ²H Solid Echo NMR, ATR-FTIR and Raman spectroscopies, thermal analysis, and porosimetry. It is proved that the applied procedure leads to the formation of a novel porous organic material containing multiple molecular rotors.

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