Photoinduced thiol-ene cross-linking of globalide/ε-caprolactone copolymers : curing performance and resulting thermoset properties

• The increasing demand for bioderived polymers led us to investigate the potential use of the macrolactone globalide in thermoset synthesis via the photoinduced thiolene reaction. A series of six lipase-catalyzed poly(globalide-caprolactone) copolyesters bearing internal main-chain unsaturations ranging from 10 to 50 and 100 mol % were successfully crosslinked in the melt with equal amounts of thiol groups from trimethylolpropane-trimercapto propionate affording fully transparent amorphous elastomeric materials with different thermal and viscoelastic properties. Three major conclusions can be drawn from this study: (i) high thiol-ene conversions (> 80%) were easily attained for all cases, while maintaining the cure behavior, and irrespective of functionality at reasonable reaction rates; (ii) parallel chain-growth homopropagation of the ene monomer is insignificant when compared with the main thiolene coupling route; and (iii) high ene-density copolymers result in much lower extracted sol fractions and high T(g) values as a result of a more dense and homogeneous crosslinked network. The thiol-ene system evaluated in this contribution serve as model example for the sustainable use of naturally occurring 1,2-disubstituted alkenes in making semisynthetic polymeric materials in high conversions with a range of properties.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Polymerkemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Polymer Chemistry (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

thiol-ene photopolymerization

unsaturated macrolactones

renewable resoruces

networks

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