A New Copolymerization Process Leading to Poly(propylene carbonate) with a Highly Ehanced Yield from Carbon Dioxide and Propylene Oxide

摘要

Using excessively loaded propylene oxide(PO) as a solvent, the copolymer-ization of carbon dioxide (CO_2) and PO was carried out with zinc glutarate catalyst, consequently producing poly(propylene carbonate) of high molecular weight in a high yield (64-70 g polymer per gram of catalyst) never achieved before. Both the PO used as solvent and the excessively loaded CO_2 were fully recoverable, respectively, and reusable for their copolymerization, indicating that this is a clean, green polymerization process to convert CO_2 to its polycarbonate. The polymer yield was further improved by scaling up the copolymerization process. Among zinc glutarate catalysts prepared through several synthetic routes, one from zinc oxide delivered the highest yield in the copolymerization.