Viscoelastic Network Formation by Ionic Complex Between Carboxyl Terminated Telechelic Polymer and Organic Amines

We studied complex formation between carboxyl teminated telechelic polymer and organic amines such as aromatic and aliphatic amines and their mechanical properties. It turned out that aliphatic amines can form ionic complexes with the telechelic polymer. On the other hand, aromatic amines and pyridines did not form ionic complex with the polymer. Remarkable increase in viscosity was observed for the complex between the polymer and an aliphatic amine with two amino groups. The complex compound could flow and behave a viscoelastic network, even although all carboxyl groups of the polymer formed ionic complexes with equilibrium amount of amino groups of a diamino compound to form highly entangled network of long polymer chains and ring chains formed by association of original chains. The activation energy of flow process of the ionic complex was larger than that of the original telechelic polymer, which indicates that they have different flow mechanism. The flow property of the ionic complex should come from recombination process of ionic associates between carboxyl and amino groups.