Continuous production of hyperbranched polyhydrocarbons by electrochemical polymerization of chlorinated methanes

Abstract

A continuous production of polyhydrocarbon (PHC) by electrochemical polymerization of chlorinated hydrocarbons is presented. Monomer loading and product transfer were controlled by changing flow direction in a home-built continuous flow system that facilitates preparation, work-up, and scale-up of electrochemical polymerization. The polymerization can be tuned by adjusting reaction time, cell configuration, molar ratio of input chemicals, and the solvent type. CH₂Cl₂, CHCl₃, and CCl₄ were used to synthesize PHC. The reduction of the monomers at the cathode was studied by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. We investigated the structure and composition of PHCs from FT-IR and NMR spectra along with elemental analysis. Sufficient amounts of product are generated by continuous production and characterization of the product PHCs by a wide variety of methods is possible. Particularly, structural analysis by various ¹³C NMR techniques suggests a new pathway for the synthesis of hyperbranched PHCs by electrochemical polymerization.