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Ring‐opening polymerization of ϵ‐caprolactone initiated by rare earth complex catalysts
Author(s) -
Deng Xianmo,
Zhu Zhixue,
Xiong Chengdong,
Zhang Lianlai
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19970516)64:7<1295::aid-app8>3.0.co;2-e
Subject(s) - polymerization , polymer chemistry , yttrium , monomer , ring opening polymerization , materials science , caprolactone , bulk polymerization , polymer , bimetallic strip , tin , molar mass distribution , solution polymerization , chemistry , metal , radical polymerization , composite material , metallurgy , oxide
The polymerization of caprolactone (ϵ‐CL) was initiated by yttrium triisopropoxide {Y(OP i r ) 3 }, bimetallic isopropoxide of yttrium and aluminum {Y[Al(OP i s ) 4 ] 3 }, yttrium and tin(II) {Y[Sn(OP i r ) 3 ] 3 }, and tin(II) and yttrium {Sn[Y(OP i r ) 4 ] 2 }, respectively. The polymerization was carried out through coordinative insertion of a monomer into the free metal‐oxygen bond. The molecular weight and yield of poly(ϵ‐caprolactone) (PCL) were affected drastically by the mol % of the initiator to the monomer (C o /M o ). The results showed that Y(OP i r ) 3 and Sn[Y(OP i r ) 4 ] 2 were more effective than were {Y[Al(OP i r ) 4 ] 3 } and {Y[Sn(OP i r ) 3 ] 3 } for the polymerization of ϵ‐CL. When polymerization was conducted at 5°C using Y(OP i r ) 3 as the initiator or at 10°C using Sn[Y(OP i r ) 4 ] 4 as the initiator, polymers with a molecular weight of 45.9 × 10 3 or 54.0 × 10 3 and high yield resulted in 30 or 5 min, respectively. The polymer was characterized by FTIR, H‐NMR, and GPC. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 64: 1295–1299, 1997