Ternary copolymers from carbon dioxide, cyclohexane dicarboxylic anhydride, and propylene oxide with improved thermal and mechanical properties

Abstract

AbstractIn this study, for the first time, we used cyclohexane dicarboxylic anhydride (CH) as the third monomer to terpolymerize with carbon dioxide (CO2) and propylene oxide (PO) under the catalysis of zinc glutarate (ZnGA). Incorporating cis‐CH (C‐CH) and trans‐CH (T‐CH) into poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) improved the thermal and mechanical properties and increased the polymer molecular weight and yield. T‐CH showed better improvement than C‐CH because of its twist‐chair form. PPC‐CH containing 3% T‐CH exhibits the glass transition temperature (Tg) and maximum weight thermal decomposition temperature (Tmax) at 38.6 and 263°C, respectively, and shows the Young's modulus and tensile strength about 2.9 GPa and 40.5 MPa, respectively, which has comparable mechanical properties to commercial poly(butylene succinate), polypropylene, and high‐density polyethylene. PPC‐CH may form a novel method to recover CO2 in the form of polymers for various applications.