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 8 2019
Accepted
10 10 2019
First published
10 10 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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