Sulfur-containing polymers from terpolymerization of active methylene compounds, carbon disulfide, and dihalohydrocarbons: synthesis and properties

Abstract

Developing efficient and powerful polymerization methodologies for the preparation of functional polymers is an important research topic in polymer science. Among the established polymerization methodologies, the synthesis of sulfur-containing polymers with carbon disulfide (CS₂) as a starting material is less developed. In this work, a new synthetic route for sulfur-containing polymers was developed from CS₂via the terpolymerization of active methylene compounds, CS₂, and dihalohydrocarbons in the presence of K₂CO₃ at 0 °C to room temperature, affording poly(ketene dithioacetals) in excellent yields (yields up to 97.0%) with high molecular weights (M_w up to 33 900). All the polymers possess good solubility and high thermal stability. In addition, these sulfur-containing polymers exhibited a high refractive index of 1.62–1.75.