Controlling Ring-Opening Copolymerization of ε-Caprolactone with Trimethylene Carbonate by Scandium Tris(2,6-di-<i>tert</i>-butyl-4-methylphenolate)

Abstract

Copolymers of ε-caprolactone (CL) and trimethylene carbonate (TMC) have been synthesized through ring-opening polymerization using a novel initiator of scandium tris(2,6-di- tert -butyl-4-methylphenolate). CL and TMC polymerizations proceed via the “coordination anionic mechanism” with acyl−oxygen bond cleavage. Five kinds of copolymers with different structures of X, XB, AXB, AB, and BAXB are synthesized under different polymerization conditions and characterized by 1 H NMR, GPC, and DSC, where X, A, and B denote as random blocks of CL and TMC, PTMC blocks, and PCL blocks, respectively.