A non-metal route to realize the bio-based polyester of poly(hexylene succinate): preparation conditions, side-reactions and mechanism in sulfonic acid-functionalized Brønsted acidic ionic liquids

Chenyang Wei; Zhengping Liu; Hongwei Tan; Liyan Huang; Jun Li

doi:10.1039/d0ra07157a

A non-metal route to realize the bio-based polyester of poly(hexylene succinate): preparation conditions, side-reactions and mechanism in sulfonic acid-functionalized Brønsted acidic ionic liquids

RSC Adv. 2020 Sep 24;10(58):35381-35388. doi: 10.1039/d0ra07157a. eCollection 2020 Sep 21.

Authors

Chenyang Wei¹, Zhengping Liu¹, Hongwei Tan², Liyan Huang¹, Jun Li¹

Affiliations

¹ BNU Key Lab of Environmentally Friendly and Functional Polymer Materials, Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University Beijing 100875 China lzp@bnu.edu.cn +86 10 58802075 +86-10-58806896.
² BNU Institute of Theoretical and Physical Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University Beijing 100875 China.

Abstract

A biodegradable linear bio-based polyester of poly(hexylene succinate) was effectively prepared in non-metal sulfonic acid-functionalized Brønsted acidic ionic liquids (SFBAILs) as both the catalyst and the polymerization medium, and the processes of polycondensation and post-polycondensation in SFBAILs were also investigated. In addition, the side reactions which were detrimental to the growth of M _w of poly(hexylene succinate) were evaluated and the synthesis mechanism of poly(hexylene succinate) catalyzed by SFBAILs was discussed with the help of DFT calculations. The result shows that both the imidazole ring and the sulfonic group on cations of SFBAILs play an important role in the catalytic process.