A New Insight Into the Mechanism of the Ring‐Opening Polymerization of Trimethylene Carbonate Catalyzed by Methanesulfonic Acid. Issue 1 (19th November 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Campos, João M.; Ribeiro, Maria R.; Ribeiro, Maria F.; Deffieux, Alain; Peruch, Frédéric
• Is Part Of: Macromolecular chemistry and physics. Volume 214:Issue 1(2013:Jan.)
• Page Start: 85
• Page End: 93
• Publication Date: 2012-11-19
• Subjects: Polymers -- Periodicals; Polymerization -- Periodicals; Synthetic products -- Periodicals; Macromolecules -- Periodicals; 547.7
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.201200433
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1022-1352

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title>Abstract</title> <p>The ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of trimethylene carbonate (TMC) initiated by a monoalcohol and catalyzed by CH₃SO₃H is investigated, in an effort to reveal extra features of the known activated monomer/active chain‐end (AM/ACE) combined mechanism. Size‐exclusion chromatography (SEC) profiles obtained with high‐molar‐mass samples show a poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) fraction generated by AM/ACE with a molar mass that is exactly twice that of the PTMC fraction coming from pure AM. Conversely, PTMC prepared with a diol is perfectly unimodal and keeps its molar mass dispersity below 1.1. This suggests that the side AM/ACE mechanism may be a bidirectional AM mechanism, and that PTMC with a narrow unimodal molar‐mass distribution can be obtained easily from a diol regardless of this side propagation.</p> </abstract>