Water as a monomer: synthesis of an aliphatic polyethersulfone from divinyl sulfone and water

Karin Ratzenböck; Mir Mehraj Ud Din; Susanne M Fischer; Ema Žagar; David Pahovnik; A Daniel Boese; Daniel Rettenwander; Christian Slugovc

doi:10.1039/d2sc02124b

Water as a monomer: synthesis of an aliphatic polyethersulfone from divinyl sulfone and water

Chem Sci. 2022 May 23;13(23):6920-6928. doi: 10.1039/d2sc02124b. eCollection 2022 Jun 15.

Authors

Karin Ratzenböck^{1

2}, Mir Mehraj Ud Din^{3

4}, Susanne M Fischer^{1

2}, Ema Žagar⁵, David Pahovnik⁵, A Daniel Boese⁶, Daniel Rettenwander^{3

4}, Christian Slugovc^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Christian Doppler Laboratory for Organocatalysis in Polymerization Stremayrgasse 9 8010 Graz Austria slugovc@tugraz.at.
² Institute for Chemistry and Technology of Materials, Graz University of Technology Stremayrgasse 9 8010 Graz Austria.
³ Department of Material Science and Engineering, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology Sem Sælands vei 12 7034 Trondheim Norway.
⁴ International Christian Doppler Laboratory for Solid-State Batteries, NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology Sem Sælands vei 12 7034 Trondheim Norway.
⁵ National Institute of Chemistry, Department of Polymer Chemistry and Technology Hajdrihova 19 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia.
⁶ Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz Heinrichstrasse 28/IV 8010 Graz Austria.

Abstract

Using water as a monomer in polymerization reactions presents a unique and exquisite strategy towards more sustainable chemistry. Herein, the feasibility thereof is demonstrated by the introduction of the oxa-Michael polyaddition of water and divinyl sulfone. Upon nucleophilic or base catalysis, the corresponding aliphatic polyethersulfone is obtained in an interfacial polymerization at room temperature in high yield (>97%) within an hour. The polyethersulfone is characterized by relatively high molar mass averages and a dispersity around 2.5. The polymer was tested as a solid polymer electrolyte with lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) as the salt. Free-standing amorphous membranes were prepared by a melt process in a solvent-free manner. The polymer electrolyte containing 15 wt% LiTFSI featured an oxidative stability of up to 5.5 V vs. Li/Li⁺ at 45 °C and a conductivity of 1.45 × 10^-8 S cm^-1 at room temperature.