Enzymatic Synthesis and Chemical Recycling of Polythiocaprolactone

✍ Scribed by Keisuke Shimokawa; Makoto Kato; Shuichi Matsumura

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 299 KB
• Volume: 212
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1352
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.201000488

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

High‐molecular‐weight polythiocaprolactone (PTCL) was prepared in a green process via lipase‐catalyzed ROP of a cyclic 6‐mercaptohexanoic acid (6MH) oligomer. PTCL was readily depolymerized by lipase to cyclic 6MH in dilute toluene solution, which was then readily repolymerized by the same lipase to produce PTCL with the same $\overline {M} _{{\rm w}} $ as the initial PTCL in a chemical recycling process. The T~m~ of PTCL was higher than that of the corresponding PCL. A P(TCL__‐co‐__CL) copolymer with 60 mol‐% TCL (6MH) units showed a higher T~m~ as the PCL homopolymer. Similar apparent K~m~ values were obtained for the cyclic 6MH oligomers and caprolactone oligomers, however, the V~max~ of cyclic 6MH oligomers was significantly lower than that of the corresponding caprolactone oligomers. magnified image