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Synthesis of Chiral Sulfur-Containing Polymers: Asymmetric Copolymerization of meso-Epoxides and Carbonyl Sulfide
Tian-Jun Yue1, Wei-Min Ren1, Li Chen2
1State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology, 2 Linggong Road, Dalian, 116024, China.
Abstract:
Synthesis of chiral sulfur-containing polymers was realized for the first time by the asymmetric alternating copolymerization of achiral meso-epoxides with carbonyl sulfide (COS) using catalyst systems based on enantiopure binaphthol-linked dinuclear CoIII complexes under mild reaction conditions. The resultant poly(monothiocarbonate)s have main-chain chirality and more than 99 % isotacticity. Notably, the stereoregular copolymers are typical semicrystalline thermoplastics with high melting temperatures up to 232 °C. Additionally, these sulfur-containing polymers have good optical properties with refractive indices of up to 1.56 and Abbe's numbers of up to 43.
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