Study of Green Solvents for Ruthenium Alkylidene Mediated Ring‐Opening Metathesis Polymerization

Abstract

Ruthenium alkylidene mediated ring‐opening metathesis polymerizations (Ru‐ROMP) are evaluated in green chemical solvents to increase their green metrics. The Ru‐ROMP of representative monomers of norbornene, oxa‐norbornene, and cyclooctadiene were compared in reference solvents (tetrahydrofuran and chloroform) and green solvents (2‐methyl tetrahydrofuran, ethyl acetate, dimethyl carbonate, and acetone). The results showed that the use of a green solvent is promising. All green solvents exhibited excellent Ru‐ROMP efficiency while their chain length controls were sensitive to solvents and monomers. Among the candidates, dimethyl carbonate expressed the general applicability of various combinations of monomers and solvents.