Published on Web 02/11/2009
N-Heterocyclic Carbene-Induced Zwitterionic Ring-Opening Polymerization of Ethylene Oxide and Direct Synthesis of r,ω-Difunctionalized Poly(ethylene oxide)s and Poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(ε-caprolactone) Block Copolymers Jean Raynaud,† Christelle Absalon,‡ Yves Gnanou,*,† and Daniel Taton*,† Laboratoire de Chimie des Polyme`res Organiques (LCPO) - ENSCPB - CNRS, UniVersite´ Bordeaux, 16 AV. Pey Berland, 330607 Pessac Cedex 9, France, and Institut des Sciences Mole´culaires - CNRS, UniVersite´ Bordeaux, 351 Cours de la Libe´ration, 33405 Talence, France Received November 26, 2008; E-mail:
[email protected];
[email protected] Abstract: An N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC), namely, 1,3-bis-(diisopropyl)imidazol-2-ylidene (1), was demonstrated to bring about the metal-free ring-opening polymerization of ethylene oxide at 50 °C in dimethyl sulfoxide, in absence of any other reagents. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) of polydispersities
