TY - JOUR
T1 - Phosphazene-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone: Influence of solvents and initiators
AU - Alamri, Haleema
AU - Zhao, Junpeng
AU - Pahovnik, David
AU - Hadjichristidis, Nikos
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - Phosphazene base (t-BuP2) catalysed metal-free ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) at room temperature with various protic initiators in different solvents was investigated. The polymerization proceeded, in most cases, in a controlled manner to afford poly(ε-caprolactone) with low dispersities and expected molecular weights. Kinetic studies showed that when a primary alcohol was used as an initiator the polymerization rate in different solvents followed the order of dichloromethane ≫ toluene > 1,4-dioxane ≈ tetrahydrofuran. Extremely fast polymerization of l-lactide (LLA), which was added as a second monomer, was observed in different solvents giving rise to poly(ε-caprolactone)-b- poly(l-lactide) diblock copolymers with neat PLLA blocks despite incomplete conversion of ε-CL. The dependence of polymerization rate on the concentrations of ε-CL and t-BuP2 was also revealed. In addition to primary alcohol, the feasibility of using other protic initiators, such as secondary alcohol (either on a small molecule or a polymer chain-end), (aliphatic/aromatic) amide, carboxylic acid, phenol and thiophenol, was also investigated. These studies provided important information for designing a metal-free route towards polyester-based (bio)materials. © 2014 the Partner Organisations.
AB - Phosphazene base (t-BuP2) catalysed metal-free ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) at room temperature with various protic initiators in different solvents was investigated. The polymerization proceeded, in most cases, in a controlled manner to afford poly(ε-caprolactone) with low dispersities and expected molecular weights. Kinetic studies showed that when a primary alcohol was used as an initiator the polymerization rate in different solvents followed the order of dichloromethane ≫ toluene > 1,4-dioxane ≈ tetrahydrofuran. Extremely fast polymerization of l-lactide (LLA), which was added as a second monomer, was observed in different solvents giving rise to poly(ε-caprolactone)-b- poly(l-lactide) diblock copolymers with neat PLLA blocks despite incomplete conversion of ε-CL. The dependence of polymerization rate on the concentrations of ε-CL and t-BuP2 was also revealed. In addition to primary alcohol, the feasibility of using other protic initiators, such as secondary alcohol (either on a small molecule or a polymer chain-end), (aliphatic/aromatic) amide, carboxylic acid, phenol and thiophenol, was also investigated. These studies provided important information for designing a metal-free route towards polyester-based (bio)materials. © 2014 the Partner Organisations.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/563229
UR - http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=C4PY00493K
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84906244664&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1039/c4py00493k
DO - 10.1039/c4py00493k
M3 - Article
SN - 1759-9954
VL - 5
SP - 5471
EP - 5478
JO - Polymer Chemistry
JF - Polymer Chemistry
IS - 18
ER -