Green and sustainable polymers: high-value aliphatic polycarbonates from CO2 and epoxides

Abstract

The alternating copolymerisation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and propylene oxide (PO) is of high interest for the industry because it enables an excellent technique for the application of cheap and industrially available building blocks. The utilisation of cheap monomers is, in addition to highly active catalysts, an essential factor for the realisation of industrial fabrication. The present work was focused on the improvement of known and the development of new catalytic systems for the formation of aliphatic polycarbonates. The main intention was not only to optimise the properties of the polymer and the polymerisation efficiency, but also to determine a model for the reaction mechanism. The prior insufficient understanding of the mechanism, and further more the inefficiency of the available catalysts prevented the production of attractive aliphatic polycarbonates in industrial scale. Today, the amplified understanding of mechanistic details enables the synthesis of improved catalysts and led to the development of new concepts for the formation of aliphatic polycarbonates.