Plastics are ubiquitous in our daily lives and represent both the past success of the chemical industry as well as one of the greatest challenges it now faces today. The buildup of these organic polymers and their negative effect on the environment and human health is an important and relevant topic to engage the diverse population of students that enroll in organic chemistry laboratory courses. This experiment illustrates how starting materials found in nature and used by the flavors and fragrance industry can be used in placed of traditional fossil fuels and used to synthesize polymers with inherent biodegradable properties using green reaction conditions. In addition, the experiment exemplifies modern approaches to tuning the properties of thermoplastic elastomers through changing the structure of the midblock and exploring the weight percent of the end-block, providing an inquiry-based laboratory experience. The structures of the midblock and triblock copolymers can be probed through IR and NMR analyses with the latter also providing estimates of the overall number average molecular mass of the copolymer. This experiment has been successfully incorporated in the large university sophomore-level organic chemistry laboratory course and is adaptable to other polymer and related classes.

Green chemistry principles illustrated through the synthesis of renewable triblock copolymers: an inquiry-based experiment

249th National Meeting (2015)

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