Bio-based captodative ligands for redox polymerization of Elium® thermoplastic composites under mild conditions

Abstract

Thermoplastic polymers obtained from resins such as Elium® combine desirable properties, including recyclability/reusability and excellent thermomechanical performances, at a relatively affordable cost. Nevertheless, their polymerization often requires a high amount of energy and/or involves hazardous chemical compounds. To address this last point, a series of bio-based captodative ligands was designed and synthesized in order to replace controversial phosphine oxides commonly used in low-energy initiating systems but suffering from toxicity issues. By using these captodative ligands, the curing time required for the polymerization of Elium® could be reduced from more than one hour to a mere 10 minutes. To gain a deeper insight into the redox mechanism involved during the polymerization process, the redox properties of a series of manganese(III) complexes containing different captodative ligands have been investigated employing cyclic voltammetry. It has been demonstrated that ligand exchange reactions induced by using the captodative (or push–pull) ligands possessing both electron-donating and electron-withdrawing groups had a significant impact on the reduction potential of the manganese(III) complexes. The reduction potential significantly changed depending on the type of heteroatom atom (X = O, S) and substituent included in the scaffold of the captodative ligands.