Living carbocationic polymerization of a vinyl ether monomer derived from soybean oil, 2-(vinyloxy)ethyl soyate

Abstract

A novel vinyl ether monomer was produced from soybean oil by base-catalyzed transesterification of 2-(vinyloxy)ethanol with soybean oil. The cationic polymerization of this monomer, which is being referred to as 2-(vinyloxy)ethyl soyate (2-VOES), was investigated using a polymerization system involving a difunctional cationogen, ethylaluminum sesquichloride as the coinitiator, toluene as the solvent, and a polymerization temperature of 0 °C. With this polymerization system, the polymerization was first order with respect to monomer and molecular weight increased linearly with monomer conversion. Further, the molecular weight distribution of the polymers obtained were below 1.2. The addition of fresh monomer to a polymerization that had reach approximately 90 percent monomer conversion resulted in a further increase in molecular weight without an increase in molecular weight distribution. These results indicate that the polymerization was a living polymerization, which will enable well-defined polymer architectures, such as triblock copolymers, to be produced in the future.