Journal of the American Chemical Society

Gregory S. Sulley, Georgina L. Gregory, Thomas T. D. Chen, Leticia Peña Carrodeguas, Gemma Trott, Alba Santmarti, Koon-Yang Lee, Nicholas J. Terrill, Charlotte K. Williams https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.9b13106

Carbon dioxide/epoxide copolymerization is an efficient way to add value to waste CO₂ and to reduce pollution in polymer manufacturing. Using this process to make low molar mass polycarbonate polyols is a commercially relevant route to new thermosets and polyurethanes. In contrast, high molar mass polycarbonates, produced from CO₂, generally under-deliver in terms of properties, and one of the most widely investigated, poly(cyclohexene carbonate), is limited by its low elongation at break and high brittleness. Here, a new catalytic polymerization process is reported that selectively and efficiently yields degradable ABA-block polymers.