Aqueous Epoxide Ring-Opening Polymerization (AEROP): Green Synthesis of Polyglycidol with Ultralow Branching

Abstract

A green synthesis method for the preparation of polyglycidol in buffer with a high degree of control is presented. Polymerizations were conducted in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) of varying pH 3.8, 6.0, and 8.0 and deionized water at temperatures of 60, 80, and 100 °C. Taking advantage of the catalytic reactivity between water and glycidol afforded a novel green polymerization technique for the facile synthesis of polyglycidol systems with semibranched architectures with a degree of branching (DB) of 0.24, which situates the polymers between purely linear (DB = 0) and hyperbranched (DB = 0.56–0.63) systems. This method sidesteps the strenuous polymerization conditions required for most polyglycidol structures and provides well-controlled and reproducible species with a high degree of linearity and narrow polydispersities of 1.1–1.2 via the first green and nonexothermic synthesis of polyglycidol.

β‐Cyclodextrin‐Based Star Amphiphilic Copolymers: Synthesis, Characterization, and Evaluation as Artificial Channels

“…The polymerization of glycidol leads to hyperbranched oligomers because of a repetition of intra‐ and intermolecular transfer reactions on the primary alcohol. The only way to obtain purely linear polyglycidol is via protected monomers and subsequent deprotection of the hydroxyl groups after polymerization . Ethoxyethyl is one of the most used protective group and leads to EEGE ( Scheme ).…”

Surface‐Selective Grafting of Crosslinking Layers on Hydrogel Surfaces via Two Different Mechanisms of Photopolymerization for Site‐Controllable Release

“…The monomer glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) that possesses two different functional groups, namely, double‐bond acrylate, which can be radically photopolymerized, and an epoxy group, which can be cationic photopolymerized, was photografted on the hydrogel surface through hydrogen abstraction photopolymerization. Cationic photopolymerization of epoxy on each building block of polyglycidyl methacrylate (PGMA) was then used to crosslink the PGMA polymer chain . Two photopolymerizations can be sequentially carried out due to different photoinitiators matching with various mechanisms and wavelengths.…”

Poly(glycidol) Coating on Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene for Reduced Biofilm Growth

“…Semi-branched poly(glycidol) (GPC M n = 2828 Da, M w /M n = 1.57 using PEG standards) and poly(glycidol allylglycidyl ether) (PG-Allyl, 20% Allyl, GPC M n = 3218 Da, M w /M n = 1.42 using PEG standards) were synthesized as previously reported. 11, 21 Allyl glycidyl ether (AGE), tin(II)triflate (Sn(OTf) 2 ) and glycidol (GLY) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich, USA. GLY was purified via Kugelrohr distillation before use.…”