The process of producing a ring-opening metathesis polymer of the present invention is mainly characterized in that a treatment to decrease the amount of oxygen and/or peroxide in at least one kind of polymerization starting material is performed prior to the ring-opening metathesis polymerization reaction of a cyclic olefin performed in the presence of a ruthenium carbene complex (catalyst). As used herein, the "polymerization starting material" refers to various materials used for a ring-opening metathesis polymerization reaction and present in the reaction system, such as ruthenium carbene complex (catalyst) and cyclic olefin (monomer), as well as solvents, chain transfer agents and the like. In addition, the method for a treatment to decrease the amount of oxygen and/or peroxide include a method comprising applying an adsorbent to a polymerization starting material to remove oxygen and/or peroxide by adsorption, a method comprising applying an antioxidant to a polymerization starting material to decompose oxygen or peroxide and the like.
According to the present invention, a ring-opening metathesis polymer can be produced at a higher reaction rate without degrading the high activity inherently possessed by a' ruthenium carbene complex (catalyst). Because of being free of a decrease in the concentration of the catalyst maintaining the high activity during reaction, the thus-obtained polymer shows a small difference between polymerization lots and becomes homogeneous, and a polymer having a comparatively sharp molecular weight distribution can be produced.
本发明的开环偏聚聚合物生产工艺的主要特点是,在碳化
钌络合物(催化剂)存在下进行环烯烃的开环偏聚聚合反应之前,先进行处理以减少至少一种聚合起始材料中的氧和/或过氧化物的含量。本文所用的 "聚合起始材料 "是指用于开环偏聚聚合反应并存在于反应体系中的各种材料,例如碳化
钌络合物(催化剂)和环烯烃(单体),以及溶剂、链转移剂等。此外,减少
氧气和/或过氧化物量的处理方法还包括将吸附剂应用于聚合起始材料以通过吸附去除
氧气和/或过氧化物的方法、将
抗氧化剂应用于聚合起始材料以分解
氧气或过氧化物的方法等。
根据本发明,可以在不降低'碳化
钌络合物(催化剂)固有的高活性的情况下,以更高的反应速率生产开环偏聚聚合物。由于在反应过程中保持高活性的催化剂浓度不会降低,因此得到的聚合物在聚合批次之间的差异很小,而且变得均匀,并能生产出分子量分布比较均匀的聚合物。