Open Access

ARTICLE

Anionic Polymerization of ε-Caprolactone Using Potassium tert-Butoxide/18-Crown-6 Initiating System

YAN WANG^A, LI-FANG ZHANG^A,B,C,*, XIAO-QI WANG^B

a Analytical & Testing Center, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen 041004, P.R. China.
b Institute of Material Chemistry, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen 041004, P.R. China.
c Collaborative Innovation Center for Shanxi Advanced Permanent Magnetic Materials and Technology, Linfen 041004, P.R. China.

* Corresponding Author: e-mail:

Journal of Polymer Materials 2020, 37(1-2), 77-89. https://doi.org/10.32381/JPM.2020.37.1-2.6

Abstract

The effect of 18-crown-6 ether (18C6) on the anionic polymerization of ε-caprolactone (ε -CL) using potassium tert-butoxide (t-BuOK) as the initiator was studied. The experimental results showed that 18C6 in combination with t-BuOK exhibited high selectivity for ring opening relative to trans-esterification and improved control toward the ROP of ε-CL, producing poly(ε- caprolactone) (PCL) with much higher molecular weight and relatively narrow distribution compared to those using t-BuOK alone as the initiator.The influences of reaction conditions, such as monomer concentration, monomer/initiator molar ratio, and [18C6]/[t-BuOK] molar ratio, as well as reaction temperature and time on the polymerization have been examined in detail. The resulting hopolymers were characterized by various analytical techniques, such as GPC, FTIR, ¹ H NMR, DSC, TGA, and MALDI-ToF MS, to monitor the structures and property changes of PCLs.

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Keywords

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