We will discuss our recent efforts on the polymerization of elemental sulfur to prepare chemically stable copolymers with a very high content of sulfur (50-90 wt% sulfur).  While the thermally initiated ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of elemental sulfur to form polymeric sulfur has long been known, this form of polymeric sulfur depolymerizes.  Furthermore, polymeric sulfur formed from this process is an intractable, brittle material.   We have recently developed a novel polymerization method, termed, inverse vulcanization, to form chemically stable and processable sulfur copolymers by the free radical copolymerization of elemental sulfur and 1,3-diisopropenylbenzene (DIB).  The inverse vulcanization process is essentially a bulk copolymerization of sulfur and DIB that mechanistically is a thermally initiated thiol-ene reaction.  We will discuss the mechanistic aspects of this process along with novel thermomechanical and electrochemical properties of these sulfur polymeric materials. 

Polymerizations with elemental sulfur: Teaching an old dog new tricks

248th National Meeting (2014)

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