Polycarbodiimides and Polyguanidines : Their reactivity and applications in covalent adaptable networks

We have recently discovered a new chemical transformation in which N,N’,N’’ tri-substituted guanidines undergo a thermal exchange reaction. Kinetic investigations indicate that the transformation is first order with respect to the guanidine, indicating a dissociative mechanism in which a carbodiimide and amine are formed as intermediates. This new reaction has been applied to polymer systems. Polycarbodiimides were shown to undergo postpolymerization modification with amines to form polyguanidines at room temperature under an hour. Polyguanidines undergo the newly found chemical transformation to form different substituted polyguanidines. This exchange reaction will be applied to the preparation of a covalent adaptable network by using multi functional amines with the polycarbodiimides. We hypothesize that the dynamic properties of these polymers will make them able to be re-used, recycled, or reprocessed