Highly Active Bifunctional Cobalt-Salen Complexes for the Synthesis of Poly(ester-block-carbonate) Copolymer via Terpolymerization of Carbon Dioxide, Propylene Oxide, and Norbornene Anhydride Isomer: Roles of Anhydride Conformation Consideration

This article describes an efficient synthetic route of defined reactive polyester-block-polycarbonate copolymers, utilizing a bifunctional SalenCoNO(3) complex as catalyst for the single-step terpolymerization of norbornene anhydride (NA), propylene oxide, and carbon dioxide. The geometric isomer of NA plays an important role in polymerization efficacy and the resulting polymer microstructure, including carbonate content, sequence isomer of polycarbonate moiety, and molecular weight. A hydroxyl-functionalized polyester-polycarbonate block copolymer was synthesized by a thiol-ene reaction. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014, 52, 789-795