Aitor Barquero, Arianna Zanoni, Elena Gabirondo, Estibaliz González de San Román, Shaghayegh Hamzehlou, Marta Ximenis, Davide Moscatelli, Haritz Sardon, Jose Ramon Leiza
Producing backbone degradable copolymers via free-radical copolymerization is a promising, yet challenging method to develop more sustainable materials for many applications. In this work, we present the copolymerization of 2-methylen-1,3-dioxepane (MDO) with crotonic acid derivative esters. MDO can copolymerize by radical ring-opening polymerization incorporating degradable ester moieties in the polymer backbone, although this can often be difficult due to the very unfavorable reactivity ratios. Crotonic acid derivatives, on the other hand, can be easily produced completely from biomass but are typically very difficult to (co)polymerize due to low propagation rates and very unfavorable reactivity ratios...
March 8, 2024: ACS Macro Letters