High‐Molecular‐Weight Polycarbonates Synthesized by Enzymatic ROP of a Cyclic Carbonate as a Green Process

• Published in: Macromolecular Bioscience
• Main Authors: Yamamoto, Yoshio, Kaihara, Sachiko, Toshima, Kazunobu, Matsumura, Shuichi
• Other Authors: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2009
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mabi.200900039; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fmabi.200900039; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/mabi.200900039

Abstract High‐molecular‐weight PTeMC and PHMC were prepared by the lipase‐catalyzed polymerization of butane‐1,4‐diol or hexane‐1,6‐diol and diphenyl carbonate via the formation of a cyclic dimer by a green process. Cyclic carbonate dimers were prepared by the lipase‐catalyzed condensation of diphenyl carbonate with butane‐1,4‐diol or hexane‐1,6‐diol in dilute toluene solution using an immobilized lipase from Candida antarctica , and was followed by the ring‐opening polymerization of the cyclic dimer in bulk with the same lipase to produce PTeMC with $\overline M _{\rm w}$ = 119 000 g · mol −1 and PHMC with $\overline M _{\rm w}$ = 399 000 g · mol −1 , respectively. Additionally, enzymatic polymerization of cyclic carbonate dimer was analyzed with respect to the K m and V max for the lipase. magnified image