Anionic polycondensation and equilibrium driven monomer formation of cyclic aliphatic carbonates. Issue 68 (20th November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hua, Geng; Olsén, Peter; Franzén, Johan; Odelius, Karin
• Is Part Of: RSC advances. Volume 8:Issue 68(2018)
• Page Start: 39022
• Page End: 39028
• Publication Date: 2018-11-20
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540.5
• DOI: 10.1039/c8ra08219g
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-2069

Abstract

Abstract : One-pot two-step phosgene-free method to make functionalized 6-membered cyclic-carbonates and aliphatic polycarbonates in large quantity. Abstract : The current work explores the sodium hydride mediated polycondensation of aliphatic diols with diethyl carbonate to produce both aliphatic polycarbonates and cyclic carbonate monomers. The lengths of the diol dictate the outcome of the reaction; for ethylene glycol and seven other 1, 3-diols with a wide array of substitution patterns, the corresponding 5-membered and 6-membered cyclic carbonates were synthesized in excellent yield (70–90%) on a 100 gram scale. Diols with longer alkyl chains, under the same conditions, yielded polycarbonates with an M w ranging from 5000 to 16 000. In all cases, the macromolecular architecture revealed that the formed polymer consisted purely of carbonate linkages, without decarboxylation as a side reaction. The synthetic design is completely solvent-free without any additional post purification steps and without the necessity of reactive ring-closing reagents. The results presented within provide a green and scalable approach to synthesize both cyclic carbonate monomers and polycarbonates with possible applications within the entire field of polymer technology.