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Published on: November 21, 2017
Phosphazene Functionalized Silsesquioxane-Based Porous Polymer as Thermally Stable and Reusable Catalyst for Bulk
Yuliya A Piskun1,2, Evgenii A Ksendzov1,2, Anastasiya V Resko1
1Research Institute for Physical Chemical Problems of the Belarusian State University, 14 Leningradskaya St., 220006 Minsk, Belarus.
Abstract:
The bulk ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ε-caprolactone using phosphazene-containing porous polymeric material (HPCP) has been studied at high reaction temperatures (130-150 °C). HPCP in conjunction with benzyl alcohol as an initiator induced the living ROP of ε-caprolactone, affording polyesters with a controlled molecular weight up to 6000 g mol-1 and moderate polydispersity (Ð~1.5) under optimized conditions ([BnOH]/[CL] = 50; HPCP: 0.63 mM; 150 °C). Poly(ε-caprolactone)s with higher molecular weight (up to Mn = 14,000 g mol-1, Ð~1.9) were obtained at a lower temperature, at 130 °C. Due to its high thermal and chemical stability, HPCP can be reused for at least three consecutive cycles without a significant decrease in the catalyst efficiency. The tentative mechanism of the HPCP-catalyzed ROP of ε-caprolactone, the key stage of which consists of the activation of the initiator through the basic sites of the catalyst, was proposed.
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