Premium
Preparation and characterization of degradation tunable poly(ε‐caprolactone) using a Sn(Oct) 2 /BF 3 dual catalyst
Author(s) -
Jiang G.,
Jones I. A.,
Rudd C. D.,
Walker G. S.
Publication year - 2008
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/app.28967
Subject(s) - caprolactone , degradation (telecommunications) , catalysis , hydrolytic degradation , polymerization , hydrolysis , polymer , polymer chemistry , materials science , nuclear chemistry , chemical engineering , chemistry , composite material , organic chemistry , telecommunications , computer science , engineering
Tailoring the degradation rate of poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) was found to be easily accomplished by the polymerization of ε‐caprolactone using a Sn(Oct) 2 /BF 3 dual catalyst. The resulting PCL contained BF 3 , which acts as a hydrolytic degradation catalyst for PCL. The degradation rate of the polymer was controlled by the concentration of BF 3 in the polymer matrix. At lower BF 3 concentrations (<0.002 mol dm −3 ), the degradation rate was linearly proportional to the BF 3 concentration. At higher BF 3 concentrations, the degradation rate rapidly increased, significantly deviating from the linear relationship between degradation rate and BF 3 concentration. The system was found to be very versatile, producing PCL with degradation rates ranging from a half‐life of 0.9–46 weeks. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008