CATIONIC HOMO-POLYMERIZATIONS AND CO-POLYMERIZATIONS OF ETHYL GLYCIDATE

Cationic homo- and co-polymerizations of ethyl glycidate (EG) have been studied with triethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate (TEOFB) and superacid ester catalysts. The homopolymerization of EG gave a paste-like material of low molecular weight with TEOFB catalyst. A superacid ester catalyst such as ethyl trifluoromethanesulfonate underwent only the initiation process with EG and the propagation was negligibly slow in this system. Copolymerization of EG with tetrahydro-furan (THF) gave a copolymer with TEOFB. When THF remained unreacted after the completion of copolymerization, the copolymer composition was in all cases EG: THF=1:2. These results were understood in terms of the penultimate effect. The same copolymerization by a superacid ester catalyst, however, always yielded copolymers of the EG/THF=1/2 composition. This result was explained in the same way as the TEOFB case, taking the EG polymerizability by a superacid ester into account. © 1979, The Society of Polymer Science, Japan. All rights reserved.