Synthesis of Poly(Trimethylene Carbonate) from Amine Group Initiation: Role of Urethane Bonds in the Crystallinity.

Thomas Brossier,Gael Volpi,Sebastien Blanquer,Vincent Lapinte

doi:10.3390/polym13020280

Abstract

Semi-crystalline poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) can be efficiently prepared by ring-opening polymerization (ROP) initiated by amine using various catalysts. More promising results were reached with the one-step process of stannous octanoate unlike the two-step one-pot reaction using TBD and MSA catalysts. The ROP-amine of TMC consists in a simple isocyanate free process to produce polycarbonate-urethanes, compatible with the large availability of amines ranging from mono- to multifunctional until natural amino acids. ROP-amine of TMC leads to urethane bonds monitored by FTIR spectroscopy. The relationship between the nature of amines and the crystallinity of PTMC was discussed through X-ray diffraction and thermal studies by DSC and TGA. The impact of the crystallinity was also demonstrated on the mechanical properties of semi-crystalline PTMC in comparison to amorphous PTMC, synthesized by ROP initiated by alcohol. The semi-crystalline PTMC synthesized by ROP-amine opens many perspectives.

Highlights

Biodegradable synthetic polymers have gained considerable interest in several basic and industrial domains
In this study we investigate the capacity of TMC to polymerize by using various amine initiators and describe the effect of the catalyst pathway to induce such ringopening polymerization (ROP)-amine
100 units has been targeted, and the conversion rate with the molar mass were measured by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometry (NMR) spectroscopy and chromatography

Summary

Introduction

Biodegradable synthetic polymers have gained considerable interest in several basic and industrial domains. The absence of core degradation allows conserving the mechanical properties all along the degradation process, which is a significant difference with their homologous biodegradable aliphatic polyesters [2] That is why such biodegradability combined with the recognized biocompatibility of the PTMC have yielded especially to high potential in biomedical applications [3]. A second approach to improve the mechanical strength was by generating biodegradable polyesters, especially polylactide and poly(ε-caprolactone), have been incrystalline phase within the amorphous coil of PTMC. Despite few discrepancies around vestigated in block or random copolymerization [9,16] and led to copolymers with the the semi-crystalline properties of PTMC with low molar mass [13], the wide majority of combined homopolymers

Methods

Results

Conclusion