Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of Polycaprolactone‐block‐Polystyrene via Macromolecular Chain Transfer Reagents

Abstract

Abstractε‐Caprolactone (CL) was enzymatically polymerized with 2‐mercaptoethanol as the initiator, both in an oil bath and under microwave (MW) irradiation. The polymerization performed under MW irradiation maintaining equal conditions led to higher yields and less formation of side products, i.e., a higher chemoselectivity was observed. The resulting polyester with a terminal SH moiety had a $\overline M _{\rm n} $ of 3 600 g · mol−1, determined by size exclusion chromatography (SEC), and was used as a chain transfer reagent. Subsequent copolymerization with styrene in different ratios led to polycaprolactone‐block‐polystyrene. SEC analysis and polarization microscopy of crystallized samples with different styrene contents proved the formation of block copolymers.magnified image