Propargyl-Functional Aliphatic Polycarbonate Obtained from Carbon Dioxide and Glycidyl Propargyl Ether

The synthesis of propargyl-functional poly(carbonate)s with different content of glycidyl propargyl ether (GPE) units is achieved via the copolymerization of propargyl glycidyl ether and carbon dioxide. A new type of functional poly(carbonate) synthesized directly from CO2 and the glycidyl ether is obtained. The resulting polymers show moderate polydispersities in the range of 1.6-2.5 and molecular weights in the range of 7000-10 500 g mol-1. The synthesized copolymers with varying number of alkyne functionalities and benzyl azide are used for the copper-catalyzed Huisgen-1,3-dipolar addition. Moreover, the presence of vicinal alkyne groups opens a general pathway to produce functional aliphatic poly(carbonate)s from a single polymer scaffold.