Volume 134, Issue 46 e202213028
Zuschrift

A Topology-Defined Polyester Elastomer from CO2 and 1,3-Butadiene: A One-Pot-One-Step “Scrambling Polymerizations” Strategy

Kaihao Chen

Kaihao Chen

MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Zhiqi Zhu

Zhiqi Zhu

MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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Dr. Tianwen Bai

Dr. Tianwen Bai

College of Biological, Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, 314001 China

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Yixuan Mei

Yixuan Mei

MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China

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Tianlun Shen

Tianlun Shen

MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China

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Prof. Jun Ling

Prof. Jun Ling

MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China

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Prof. Xufeng Ni

Corresponding Author

Prof. Xufeng Ni

MOE Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China

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First published: 24 September 2022
Citations: 1

Abstract

It is significant and challenging to use CO2 to produce polymeric materials, especially with olefins. Here, a novel strategy named “scrambling polymerizations” is designed and performed for the copolymerization of a CO2-and-1,3-butadiene-derived valerolactone, 3-ethylidene-6-vinyltetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-one (EVL), with ϵ-caprolactone (CL) to prepare polyesters. Anionic ring-opening polymerization of CL and conjugated addition oligomerization of EVL take place individually to form PCL and EVL oligomers, respectively. Then EVL oligomers insert into PCL by transesterification resulting in polyester P(CL-co-EVL) with a tunable topology and composition. The non-cytotoxic and degradable polyester network with elongation at break of >600 % can be used as an elastomer. We propose a method to provide polyester elastomers from CO2 and olefins for the first time, and expand the potential of transformation from sustainable feedstocks to polymeric materials.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.