Issue 2, 2020

Repurposing poly(monothiocarbonate)s to poly(thioether)s with organic bases

Abstract

This work reports a unique one-pot/one-step route to rapidly produce poly(thioether)s from poly(monothiocarbonate) (PMTC), a sulfur-containing polymer, using commercially available organic bases. The process started with the degradation of PMTC to a cyclic monothiocarbonate that generated an episulfide via a decarboxylative reaction. Then the episulfide underwent ring-opening polymerization. Organic bases catalyzed the degradation of PMTC and initiated the ring-opening of the generated cyclic monothiocarbonate. This process was successfully expanded to transform several PMTCs to the corresponding poly(thioether)s. The resultant poly(thioether)s exhibited higher thermal decomposition temperatures (up to 311 °C), higher refractive indexes (ca. 1.62) and lower glass transition temperatures (−48 °C) than those of the corresponding PMTCs. This work provides a polymer-to-polymer pathway for repurposing poly(monothiocarbonate)s.

Graphical abstract: Repurposing poly(monothiocarbonate)s to poly(thioether)s with organic bases

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Aug 2019
Accepted
10 Oct 2019
First published
10 Oct 2019

Polym. Chem., 2020,11, 309-314

Repurposing poly(monothiocarbonate)s to poly(thioether)s with organic bases

X. Cao, C. Zhang, J. Yang, L. Hu and X. Zhang, Polym. Chem., 2020, 11, 309 DOI: 10.1039/C9PY01147A

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