Cationic ring-opening polymerization of 3-methyl-3-oxetanemethanol

This work developed the cationic ring-opening polymerization of 3-methyl-3- hydroxymethyleneoxetane initiated by BF3 . OEt2 directly. The resulted poly mer was easily dissolved in polar solvents such as CH3OH, C2H5OH, DMSO and N-methyl pyrrolidone, but not dissolved in water, tetrahydrofuran and other non-polar solvents. The TGA study of sample 1 indicates that the polymer s tarts to pyrolyze at 360 degrees C. There is a melting endotherm at 125.9 d egrees C in the DSC curve of sample 1, and the melting peak enlarged with d ecreasing the amount of catalyst added, which means that sample 1 is essent ially linear, and with increasing the amount of catalyst the resulted polym er becomes slightly branched.