0000000000285769
AUTHOR
Sirus Zarbakhsh
The poly(propylene oxide-co-ethylene oxide) gradient is controlled by the polymerization method: determination of reactivity ratios by direct comparison of different copolymerization models
An investigation of the highly relevant copolymerization of ethylene oxide (EO) and propylene oxide (PO) by in situ1H NMR spectroscopy shows striking differences in the copolymerization kinetics, depending on the polymerization method. Examination of the EO/PO copolymerization kinetics using iBu3Al for the monomer-activated anionic ring opening polymerization (AROP) confirmed a strong monomer gradient of the microstructure (rEO = 6.4, rPO = 0.16) in contrast to the known weak gradient in the conventional AROP (rEO = 2.8, rPO = 0.25). The first study via in situ1H-NMR kinetics of the copolymerization of PO and EO under heterogeneous double metal cyanide (DMC) catalysis, a method that produce…
The Unique Versatility of the Double Metal Cyanide (DMC) Catalyst: Introducing Siloxane Segments to Polypropylene Oxide by Ring-Opening Copolymerization.
The combination of hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) blocks with hydrophilic polyether segments plays a key role for silicone surfactants. Capitalizing on the double metal cyanide (DMC) catalyst, the direct (i.e., statistical) copolymerization of cyclic siloxanes and epoxides is shown to be feasible. The solvent-free one-pot copolymerization of hexamethylcyclotrisiloxane and propylene oxide results in the formation of gradient propylene oxide (PPO)-PDMS copolymers. Copolymers with up to 46% siloxane content with low dispersities (Ð < 1.2) are obtained in the molecular weight range of 2100-2900 g mol-1 . The polymerization kinetics are investigated by pressure monitoring and in situ 1 …