CHAPTER 3
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

 Monomer Synthesis

 Recent research from Koyama, Sanda, and Endo is of particular interest to the

Wagener research group because the diene monomers they synthesized lend themselves

to metathesis chemistry.6 The Wagener group modeled dienes (1-6) on the preliminary

work done by those researchers. These dienes were synthesized by Tim Hopkins.4 Dr.

Hopkins' initial work focused on the 2 and 3 methylene spacer versions of the valinol,

leucinol, and isoleucinol monomers (3-5). He synthesized the three olefins and

hydrogenated the valinol olefin into a saturated polymer.2'4 The 2 and 3 methylene

spacer monomers did not polymerize to high polymer with the 2nd generation Grubbs'

catalyst.

 Ru,
 / '0

 H 0
Figure 2 Complexation with 2nd generation Grubbs' catalyst

 Our belief is that the complexation with the catalyst (Figure 2) could be overcome

by moving the alkene farther away from the carbonyl groups that are causing the

complexation problems. We made use of the readily available undecenyl acid molecule,

a 10-carbon carboxylic acid-alkene, to make our monomers. This molecule places 18

carbons between the amide and ester bonds in the backbone of the hydrogenated polymer

(13-18). The kinetics of polymerization with these new monomers proved not to be a

problem, as they resulted in high molecular weight polymers. The isomerization of the