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Investigation and Comparison of Catalytic Methods to Produce Green CO2-Containing Monomers for Polycarbonates
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Researchers investigated and compared two catalytic synthesis routes for producing cyclic carbonates as CO2-containing monomers for ring-opening polymerization, finding that an organocatalytic transesterification method achieved 100% selectivity for styrene carbonate, which was successfully polymerized into an amorphous thermoplastic with a glass transition temperature of 185°C.
The preparation of CO2-containing polymers with improved degradation properties is still very challenging. An elegant method for preparing these polymers is to use CO2-containing monomers in ring-opening polymerizations (ROP) which are particularly gentle and energy-saving methods. However, cyclic carbonates are required for this which are not readily available. This paper therefore aims to present the optimization and comparison of two synthesis methods to obtain cyclic carbonates for ROP. Within this work, cyclic styrene carbonate was synthesized from readily available raw materials by using a Jacobsen catalyst for the reaction of styrene oxide and carbon dioxide or an organocatalyst for the transesterification of methyl carbonate with 1-phenyl-1,2-ethanediol. The latter performed with 100% selectivity to the desired styrene carbonate, which was succesfully tested in ROP, producing an amorphous thermoplastic polymer with a TG of 185 °C.
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