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Dual cooperative organocatalysts for one-pot synthesis of polyester-polythiocarbonate block copolymers from multiple monomers

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Abstract

The sequential arrangement of multiple monomer units in a polymer chain remains a major challenge in synthetic chemistry. Here we describe a versatile route to the novel polyester-polythiocarbonate block copolymer from commercially available lactones, epoxides, and carbonyl sulfide (COS). A bicomponent organocatalyst combining triazabicyclodecene (TBD) with triethyl borane (TEB) generates two types of tunable active sites, i.e., TBD-capped alcohol via hydrogen bond and TEB-capped alcohol via O→B coordination bond, which can successively catalyze ring-opening polymerization of lactones and ring-opening copolymerization of COS and epoxides from mixed monomers in one pot. Because of the reversible activated propagating anions and fast activity exchange between the active and dormant species, all of the polymer chains are enchained with both polyester and polythiocarbonate blocks. Kinetic determination quantitatively confirms the proposed mechanism. This method enables diverse lactones and epoxides to form sulfur-containing block copolymers with readily tunable structures.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51973190, 21774108).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Synthesis and Functionalization, Ministry of Education, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Cheng-Jian Zhang, Xun Zhang & Xing-Hong Zhang

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  1. Cheng-Jian Zhang
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  2. Xun Zhang
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  3. Xing-Hong Zhang
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Correspondence to Xing-Hong Zhang.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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11426_2020_9816_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Dual cooperative organocatalysts for one-pot synthesis of polyester-polythiocarbonate block copolymers from multiple monomers

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Zhang, CJ., Zhang, X. & Zhang, XH. Dual cooperative organocatalysts for one-pot synthesis of polyester-polythiocarbonate block copolymers from multiple monomers. Sci. China Chem. 63, 1807–1814 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9816-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-020-9816-4

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