Shinde, K., et al. J. Polym. Sci., 2020, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/pol.20200404
The incorporation of functional groups into unsaturated polyolefine-polymers often represent a challenging task, in particular in synthetic rubber such as poly(isoprenes). Based on the cyclopropanation of double bonds with diazoesters in the presence of metal-catalysts we in this article develop an approach to decorate the polymer backbone of poly(diene)s with esters and carboxylic acids, reaching modification degrees of up to 17%. The resulting esters were further converted to the corresponding free carboxylic groups by deprotection using trifluoroacetic acid