Alicyclic polyesters from a bicyclic 1,3-dioxane-4-one

Abstract

Alicyclic polymers with in-chain aliphatic rings promote improved thermal and optical performance due to backbone rigidity but remain limited in their functional diversity. In this paper we report the first polyester system with solely alicyclic ring connectivity, afforded through ring-opening of a bicyclic dioxane-4-one ring. Polymerisation of the accessible trans isomer is challenging, but affords a novel family of polymers and copolymers.