Tetrahydrofuran polymerization initiated by heteropolyacid in the presence of ethylene oxide: Reaction behavior of water and glycol

✍ Scribed by Afang Zhang; Guangli Zhang; Hongzhi Zhang

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 135 KB
• Volume: 74
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-8995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(19991114)74:7<1821::aid-app26>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

The reaction behavior of water and low molecular weight glycol in tetrahydrofuran polymerization initiated by H 3 PW 12 O 40 in the presence of ethylene oxide has been studied. A lot of water was used in the hydrolysis reaction of ethylene oxide at the early stage of the polymerization and transformed into ethylene glycol (EG), which was consumed subsequently through a chain transfer reaction. EG was more reactive both than 1,4-butylene glycol and hexamethylene glycol toward propagating species, and the reaction rate constants at 0°C were determined by GC to be 0.142, 8.83 ϫ 10 Ϫ2 , and 5.53 ϫ 10 Ϫ2 L ⅐ mol Ϫ1 s Ϫ1 , respectively. The molecular weight of the product can be predicted by an equation based upon conversion of polymerization and the concentrations of molecular weight controller and H 3 PW 12 O 40 .