Abstract
The superior ability of thiiranes (episulfides) to undergo ring-opening polymerization (ROP) in the presence of anionic initiators allows the preparation of chemically stable polysulfide homopolymers. Incorporation of elemental sulfur (S8) by copolymerization below the floor temperature of S8 permits the placement of a large quantity of sulfur atoms in the polysulfide mainchain. The utility of styrene sulfide (2-phenylthiirane; StS) for copolymerization with elemental sulfur is reported here. A few polysulfides differing depending on the initial ratio of S8 to StS and copolymerization time were synthesized. Various spectroscopic methods (1H NMR, 13C NMR, Raman spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy) were applied to characterize the chemical structure of the copolymers. Additionally, the phase structure and thermal stability of the synthesized polysulfides were investigated using DSC and TGA, respectively. The successful anionic copolymerization of styrene sulfide and elemental sulfur has been demonstrated.
Highlights
The preparation of polymeric materials with novel structures and simultaneously interesting and preferably smart properties has a big priority in modern polymer chemistry [1,2]
The analysis of the monomer was carried out in order to confirm its structure before the polymerization process and assure that styrene (St), which is a product of styrene sulfide (StS) degradation, is not present in the StS
The current knowledge of styrene sulfide is very poor, especially in terms of spectroscopic data; it is advisable to supplement the information about spectroscopic properties of StS, and two complementary methods, i.e., Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, were applied
Summary
The preparation of polymeric materials with novel structures and simultaneously interesting and preferably smart properties has a big priority in modern polymer chemistry [1,2]. Modification of end- and side-groups or mainchain architecture is a common way to tailor the properties of polymeric materials. Such modifications do not always provide materials with properties obtainable, for example, by the incorporation of heteroatoms into the polymer mainchain [3]. Incorporation of some elements of the p-block such as sulfur [5,6], boron [5,7] or prominently phosphorous [3,5] into the carbon mainchain permits the formation of more exotic structures that should be of importance for polymer synthesis development. For the larger than academic scale production, monomer availability and consequent costs must be considered
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