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Towards the Sustainable Production of Higher‐Molecular‐Weight Polyglycerol
Author(s) -
Salehpour Somaieh,
Dubé Marc A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201100064
Subject(s) - glycerol , monomer , branching (polymer chemistry) , transesterification , polymer , polymerization , polymer chemistry , biodiesel , molar mass distribution , biodiesel production , chemistry , catalysis , organic chemistry , chemical engineering , materials science , engineering
The step‐growth polymerization of glycerol to relatively high molecular weight polyglycerol is investigated. Glycerol is a renewable material that can be derived from the transesterification of vegetable oils to biodiesel. Several soluble catalysts and their reaction mechanisms are compared and their effect on polymer molecular weight and microstructure is measured. High‐molecular‐weight PG with multimodal molecular weight distributions is observed using GPC, and partial branching is identified using 13 C NMR spectroscopy. Theoretical models are used to predict the gel point and to calculate monomer functionality.