High-Refractive-Index Cross-Linked Cyclic Olefin Polymers with Excellent Transparency via Thiol–Ene Click Reaction
Jian Zhang, Yixin Zhang, Lei Cui, Zhongbao Jian
Abstract
High-refractive-index polymers are important optical materials in optoelectronics. Conventional cyclic olefin polymers (COPs), possessing many excellent optical properties, are a class of highly promising optical materials; however, one of the greatest obstacles is their low refractive index of n = 1.52–1.54. Here, one efficient strategy of first incorporating high molar refraction groups, including carbazolyl and indolyl moieties, into unsaturated COPs via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) and then introducing another high molar refraction sulfur atom by a subsequent thiol–ene click reaction is presented. The obtained cross-linked COPs bearing both an aromatic group and sulfur possess significantly higher refractive indices ( n = 1.611–1.684 at 589 nm) and highly optical transparency (approximately 95%) in the range of vis-NIR. This provides a way toward potential applications of new-generation optical materials.