Waste not, want not: CO2 (re)cycling into block polymers

Sumesh K. Raman; Robert Raja; Polly L. Arnold; Matthew G. Davidson; Charlotte K. Williams

doi:10.1039/C9CC02459J

Waste not, want not: CO₂ (re)cycling into block polymers†

Sumesh K. Raman,^a Robert Raja,

^b Polly L. Arnold,

^c Matthew G. Davidson

^d and Charlotte K. Williams

*^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, 12 Mansfield Road, Oxford, UK
E-mail: charlotte.williams@chem.ox.ac.uk

^b Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies, Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, Bath, UK

^c School of Chemistry, University of Southampton, University Road, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK

^d EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, The University of Edinburgh, Joseph Black Building, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh, UK

Abstract

A new way to combine two different polymerisation reactions, using a single catalyst, results in efficient block polymer synthesis. The selective polymerisation of mixtures of L-lactide-O-carboxyanhydride and cyclohexene oxide, using a di-zinc catalyst in a one-pot procedure, allows the preparation of poly(L-lactide-b-cyclohexene carbonate). The catalysis near quantitatively recycles the carbon dioxide released during polyester formation into the subsequent polycarbonate block, with an atom economy of up to of 91%.

This article is part of the themed collection: Switchable Catalysis

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C9CC02459J
Article type: Communication
Submitted: 29 Mar 2019
Accepted: 09 May 2019
First published: 07 Jun 2019
This article is Open Access

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Chem. Commun., 2019,55, 7315-7318

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Waste not, want not: CO₂ (re)cycling into block polymers

S. K. Raman, R. Raja, P. L. Arnold, M. G. Davidson and C. K. Williams, Chem. Commun., 2019, 55, 7315 DOI: 10.1039/C9CC02459J

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Chemical Communications