Synthesis and characterization of polyphosphazenes for use as solid electrolyte media and optical materials

The work described in this thesis covers two important applications in which, attempts are being made to substitute the conventional materials with polymeric materials. In the research discussed, information on structure property relationship from past work on polyphosphazenes was used in an attempt to fit specific applications.; Work in the area of solid polymer electrolytes was carried out to improve the ionic conductivity of a known polyphosphazene electrolyte by use of various oligoethyleneoxy bearing small molecules as additives. Ionic conductivities of the mixtures were studied as a function of additive concentration. The effect of high boiling, high dielectric constant solvents as additives was also studied. In order to improve the dimensional stability of the polyphosphazene electrolytes, polymers with different architecture and different molecular weights were synthesized. A star polyphosphazene having three arms was synthesized. Another polymer that was synthesized was a complex, highly branched polyphosphazene which has 26 ethyleneoxy units per polymer repeat unit The ionic conductivities of these polymers is reported.; In the second aspect of the research, polyphosphazenes that have potential applications as electro-optic materials are reported. Different polymers which have NLO chromophores linked to the phosphazene backbone were synthesized. Soluble forms of the NLO chromophore were chosen and reacted with functionalized polyphosphazenes to form ester and etheric linkages. The {dollar}rm Tsb{lcub}g{rcub}{dollar}'s of the polymers were considerably higher than most polyphosphazenes of the similar kind. The refractive indices of the polymers were around 1.7. Birefringence measurements were carried out on these polymers in order to determine the electro-optic coefficients.; In an effort to develop high refractive index and high {dollar}rm Tsb{lcub}g{rcub}{dollar} polymers, polyphosphazenes bearing carbazole and various halogenated carbazole groups were synthesized. These materials did not display glass transition temperatures, but were found to be extremely stable by TGA. The refractive indices and abbe numbers of the polymers are reported. The molar refractivity data was calculated and an effort to compare the molar refractivity of the P-N bond from previous work was made.