Polyrotaxanes consisting of 30-60 membered aliphatic crown ether macrocycles whose cavities are pierced by polysebacate chains were synthesized by several polymerization approaches including transesterification polymerization, the acid chloride method, and interfacial polymerization.

The polyrotaxanes were purified by multiple reprecipitations into good solvents for the crown ethers. In some cases the threaded macrocycles are constrained onto polymer chains by the incorporation of monofunctional blocking groups at polymer chain ends, or by the copolymerization of a difunctional blocking group with other monomers.

The compositions and the physical properties of the polyrotaxanes were determined by a variety of characterization techniques including NMR, UV, VPO, GPC, DSC, TGA, and intrinsic viscosity measurements. Significant amounts, up to 51 mass %, of the macrocyclic components were incorporated. Because of incorporation of flexible and polar macrocycles, polyrotaxanes display special behavior in solution and in the solid state. In solution the linear components of polyrotaxanes are stiffened by the threaded macrocycles, resulting in increased hydrodynamic volumes. The solubilities of linear polymers in polar solvents are enhanced by the incorporated crown ethers. The glass transitions are also affected by the crown ether component. Due to the movement of the macrocycles along the backbone, the macrocycles are able to aggregate and crystallize without dethreading from the polysebacate backbones.

The threading and dethreading processes were systematically studied in the diol/diacid chloride system. Due to the hydrogen bonding between the cyclic and linear species, the macrocycle contents of unblocked polyrotaxanes are significantly affected by the feed ratio of macrocycle to linear monomers up to a value of 2 but are independent of reaction time and the length of diol monomers. The macrocycle content of polyrotaxanes increases non-linearly with the size of the macrocycles, presumably due to changes in the fraction of threadable conformations of the macrocycles. Although some macrocycles near the unblocked polymer chain ends are apparently susceptible to the dethreading from polymer chains, most of the macrocycles are prevented on resonable time scales, e.g., months in solution, from the dethreading by the entanglement of cyclic and linear species.