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Facile synthesis of poly(trimethylene carbonate) by alkali metal carboxylate-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization

Polymer Journal volume 52, pages 103–110 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Alkali metal carboxylates, including sodium acetate, sodium benzoate, and sodium sorbate, which are all readily available and widely used as food additives, were found to promote the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of trimethylene carbonate (TMC) to produce poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC). The sodium acetate-catalyzed ROP of TMC proceeded in the presence of an alcohol initiator under solvent-free conditions at 70 °C, even at very low catalyst loadings of 0.01–0.0001 mol%. The controlled nature of this ROP system enabled the synthesis of PTMCs with predicted molecular weights ranging from 2400 to 11 700 g mol−1 and narrow dispersities (~1.23). Importantly, ROP is initiated by an alcohol initiator, allowing PTMC production with desired functional groups, such as azido, alkyne, and methacrylate groups, at the α-chain end. Furthermore, the poly(l-lactic acid)-b-PTMC-b-poly(l-lactic acid) triblock copolymer, a biodegradable thermoplastic elastomer, was successfully synthesized in one pot via the sodium acetate-catalyzed ring-opening block copolymerization of TMC and l-lactide with a 1,3-propanediol initiator.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number JP18H04639) (Hybrid Catalysis for Enabling Molecular Synthesis on Demand), Frontier Chemistry Center (Hokkaido University), Inamori Foundation, and Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellows. TS gratefully acknowledges the JSPS Fellowship for Young Scientists. VL, PB, and NH gratefully acknowledge the support of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8628, Japan

    Kaoru Takojima & Tatsuya Saito

  2. Polytech Montpellier, 34095, Montpellier, France

    Cedric Vevert

  3. Physical Sciences and Engineering Division, KAUST Catalysis Center, Polymer Synthesis Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, 23955, Saudi Arabia

    Viko Ladelta, Panayiotis Bilalis & Nikos Hadjichristidis

  4. R&D Center, Organic Chemical Products Company, Daicel Corporation, Hiroshima, 739-0695, Japan

    Jun Watanabe, Shintaro Hatanaka & Takashi Konno

  5. Division of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8628, Japan

    Takuya Yamamoto, Kenji Tajima, Takuya Isono & Toshifumi Satoh

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  1. Kaoru Takojima
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  2. Tatsuya Saito
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Correspondence to Takuya Isono or Toshifumi Satoh.

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Takojima, K., Saito, T., Vevert, C. et al. Facile synthesis of poly(trimethylene carbonate) by alkali metal carboxylate-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization. Polym J 52, 103–110 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-019-0264-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-019-0264-6

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