A one-pot synthesis of a triblock copolymer from propylene oxide/carbon dioxide and lactide: intermediacy of polyol initiators.
Just add water: The copolymerization of propylene oxide and CO2 catalyzed by a cobalt complex is tolerant to the addition of water as chain-transfer reagent to afford polyols (HO-(PPC)-OH) with narrow molecular weight distributions (see picture; PPC=poly(propylene carbonate); PLA=polylactide). The addition of an organocatalyst to these polyols in the presence of lactides produces well-defined triblock copolymers (PLA-b-PPC-b-PLA).
Department of Chemistry, Texas A& M University, 3255 TAMU; College Station, TX 77843 (USA) http://www.chem.tamu.edu/rgroup/djd/index.html. djdarens@chem.tamu.edu.
Donald J
DJ
Darensbourg
Guang-Peng
GP
Wu
block copolymers; carbon dioxide; coordination copolymerization; lactide; ring-opening polymerization