Acetyl Halide Initiator Screening for the Cationic Ring-Opening Polymerization of 2-Ethyl-2-Oxazoline

• Published in: Macromolecular chemistry and physics Vol. 209; no. 8; pp. 794 - 800
• Main Authors: Paulus, Renzo M., Becer, C. Remzi, Hoogenboom, Richard, Schubert, Ulrich S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 22-04-2008; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley
• Subjects: acetyl bromide; acetyl chloride; acetyl halide; acetyl iodide; Applied sciences; cationic polymerization; Exact sciences and technology; living polymerization; Organic polymers; Physicochemistry of polymers; poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline); Polymerization; Preparation, kinetics, thermodynamics, mechanism and catalysts; ring-opening polymerization; Ethyleneimine derivative polymer; Ring opening polymerization; acetyl bromide; Priming activity; Living polymer; acetyl chloride; acetyl halide; poly(2- ethyl-2-oxazoline); Cationic polymerization; Experimental study; Chemical reaction kinetics; Solution polymerization; ring-opening polymerization; living polymerization; Microwave irradiation; acetyl iodide; Acyl halide; Cationic catalyst; Activation energy; Comparative study
• ISSN: 1022-1352; 1521-3935
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.200700506

Kinetic investigations on the cationic ring‐opening polymerization of 2‐ethyl‐2‐oxazoline were conducted using acetyl chloride, acetyl bromide, and acetyl iodide as initiators. Various polymerization temperatures ranging from 80 to 220 °C were applied under microwave irradiation. The resulting polymerization mixtures were characterized with GC and GPC for the determination of monomer conversion and molecular weight distribution, respectively. Well defined polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions ($\overline M _{{\rm n,GPC}}$ = 6 000 Dalton, PDI ≈ 1.10) were obtained with all three initiators.