Due to rising prices and depleting supplies of petroleum, production of materials from renewable resources in place of petrochemical sources, is becoming increasingly important. A particularly attractive class of natural polymers are those derived from cyclic monoterpenes (ie. b-pinene) as they are expected to display desirable thermal properties. Commercial terpenes produced by cationic polymerization often result in low molecular weight polymers and can be sensitive to impurities such as water. To avoid these types of sensitive reaction conditions, the cationic polymerization behavior of b-pinene in the presence of boron containing compounds such as [Ph3C][B(C6F5)3] is currently being investigated. Characterization of the resultant polymers will be carried out using 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The ultimate goal of this research described is to produce polymers from renewable resources under water tolerant conditions that are attractive alternatives to materials obtained from petrochemical sources.

Optimization of cationic polymerization mechanism for chemically green monomers: β-Pinene in conjunction with [Ph3C][B(C6F5)4]

245th National Meeting (2013)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.