Limonene as a renewable unsaturated hydrocarbon solvent for living anionic polymerization of β-myrcene

Abstract

The acyclic monoterpene β-myrcene is polymerized by anionic polymerization at room temperature using sec-butyllithium as the initiator and the cyclic monoterpene DL-limonene as an unsaturated hydrocarbon solvent. The polymerization is a living process and allows production of polymyrcenes with narrow molar mass distribution (Đ ∼ 1.06) and high content of 1,4 units (∼90%) as well as block copolymers.