The polymerization of epoxides by metal halide catalysts

Abstract

Abstract Ethylene, propylene, and styrene oxides have been polymerized by a range of metal halide catalysts, high molecular weight products being obtained from the two firstnamed. The limited quantitative evidence presented is consistent with the view that these polymerizations proceed by a coordinate propagation mechanism. The effective catalyst for this stage is essentially a metal alkoxide, formed in an initial cationic polymerization in which a small number of monomer units are attached to the metal atom. The propylene oxide polymers generally contain a fraction of crystalline material, but the proportion of this can be reduced practically to zero (with FeCl 3 catalysis) by careful exclusion of water.