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Updated: May 30, 2026

Depolymerizable Olefinic Polymers Based on Fused-Ring Cyclooctene Monomers
Published on: December 16, 2022
Synthesis of eight-shaped poly(ethylene oxide) by the combination of Glaser coupling with ring-opening polymerization
Guowei Wang1, Xiaoshan Fan, Bin Hu
1The Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymer, State Education Ministry of China, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
Abstract:
The eight-shaped poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) is synthesized by a combination of Glaser coupling with ring-opening polymerization (ROP). Firstly, the star-shaped (PEO-OH)(4) is synthesized by ROP of ethylene oxide (EO) using pentaerythritol as an initiator and diphenylmethyl potassium (DPMK) as a deprotonated agent, and then the alkyne group is introduced onto the PEO arm-end to give (PEO-Alkyne)(4) in a NaH/tetrahydrofuran (THF) system. The intramolecular cyclization is carried out by a Glaser coupling reaction in a pyridine/CuBr/N,N,N',N",N"-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) system at room temperature in an air atmosphere, and eight-shaped PEO was formed with high efficiency (almost 100%). The target polymers and intermediates were well characterized by SEC, MALDI-TOF MS, (1)H NMR and FT-IR in detail.
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