Substituent effect on the cationic ring‐opening polymerization of acyloxymethyl five‐member cyclic dithiocarbonates

Five‐member cyclic dithiocarbonates were synthesized by the reactions of carbon disulfide with benzoic, p‐anisic, p‐chlorobenzoic, 1‐naphthalenecarboxylic, p‐nitrobenzoic, and p‐(tert‐butyl)benzoic glycidyl esters, and their cationic ring‐opening polymerizations were carried out with methyl trifluoromethane sulfonate and trifluoromethane sulfonic acid as initiators at room temperature to 80 °C. Polymers with number‐average molecular weights of 3400–24,900 were obtained in high yields, and their structures were estimated by NMR and IR spectroscopy. The monomers showed a clear difference in the polymerization rate according to the substituents. The rate of polymerization decreased in the order of p‐chlorobenzoic ≥ benzoic > 1‐naphthalenecarboxylic > p‐nitro‐benzoic > p‐tert‐butylbenzoic > p‐anisic. The data of the reaction kinetics, NMR studies, and molecular orbital calculations proved a plausible mechanism involving the participation of p‐substituted benzoyloxymethyl groups to stabilize the cationic propagating end. The polymers showed decomposition temperatures with 5% weight loss ranging from 200 to 260 °C. No glass‐transition temperatures for the polymers were observed below 200 °C by differential scanning calorimetry. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 39: 3967–3980, 2001     

Equilibrium polymerization behavior in the cationic single ring‐opening polymerization of bicyclo orthoesters

The synthesis and cationic polymerization of the following bicyclo orthoesters were examined: 4‐ethyl‐2,6,7‐trioxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, 1,4‐diethyl‐2,6,7‐trioxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, 4‐ethyl‐1‐phenyl‐2,6,7‐trioxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, 4‐ethyl‐1‐(4‐methoxyphenyl)‐2,6,7‐trioxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane, and 4‐ethyl‐1‐(4‐nitrophenyl)‐2,6,7‐ trioxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane. All the monomers underwent equilibrium polymerization, which was confirmed by the relationships between the polymerization temperature and monomer conversion. The obtained polymers afforded the original monomers via an acid‐catalyst treatment with a low reagent concentration in CH₂Cl₂ at 20 °C. The equilibrium monomer concentration was constant, regardless of the initial reagent concentration, in both polymerization and depolymerization. The bicyclo orthoesters with a bulky and electron‐withdrawing substituent showed a larger equilibrium monomer concentration. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 39: 3159–3167, 2001     

Cationic ring-opening transfer polymerization of spiro ortho esters initiated by carbon black

The ring-opening transfer polymerization of spiro ortho esters (SOE) initiated by carbon black was investigated. In the absence of carbon black, no polymerization occurred at all. In the presence of channel black containing carboxyl group, the ring-opening transfer polymerization of SOE was initiated at 50-70°C. to give polyether ester, namely alternating copolymer of epoxide and lactone. The rate of polymerization of 1,4,6-trioxaspiro[4.4]nonane and 1,4,6-trioxaspiro[4.5]decane was considerably small compared with that of 1,4,6-trioxaspiro[4.6]undecane. The activation energy of the polymerization of 2-chloromethyl-1,4,6-trioxaspiro[4.6]undecane was estimated to be 6.0 kcal/mol. The initiating activity of carbon black increased with an increase in carboxyl group content of carbon black. Furnace black that contained no carboxyl group was unable to initiate the polymerization. Furthermore, the carbon black lost the initiating ability of the polymerization upon the blocking of carboxyl group on the surface by the treatment with potassium hydroxide or diazomethane. Based on these results, it was concluded that carboxyl group on carbon black plays an important role in the initiation. During the polymerization, a part of the polymer formed was grafted onto carbon black: the grafting ratio was 10–30%. The mechanisms of initiation and grafting were discussed.     

Stir bar sorptive extraction and thermal desorption-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for trace analysis of triclosan in water sample

A simple and highly sensitive method called stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) and thermal desorption (TD)-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), which is used for the determination of trace amounts of 5-chloro-2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol (triclosan) in river water samples, is described. A stir bar coated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is added to a 10mL water sample and stirring is carried out for 120min at room temperature (25 degrees C) in a vial. Then, the PDMS stir bar is subjected to TD-GC-MS. The detection limit of triclosan is 5ngL(-1) (ppt). The method shows linearity over the calibration range (0.02-20mugL(-1)) and the correlation coefficient is higher than 0.997 for triclosan standard solution. The recovery of triclosan in river water samples ranges from 91.9 to 108.3% (RSD: 4.0-7.0%). This simple, accurate, sensitive, and selective analytical method may be used in the determination of trace amounts of triclosan in river water samples.     

Dynamic recording of a digital hologram with single exposure by a wave-splitting phase-shifting method

The wave-splitting phase-shifting digital holography using a pixelated microretarder array is proposed. By using four intensity images recorded by the pixelated microretarder array, Stokes parameters of the incident wave can be calculated. The fully complex amplitude distribution of the object wave can be obtained by using Stokes parameters, if the polarization states of the object and reference waves are linear and orthogonal. Two sets of experimental results are provided to verify the feasibility of the proposed method. One is the result for a movie recording using a CW laser and the other is the result for instant recording using a single pulsed laser.     

Controlled monomer insertion into polymer main chain: synthesis of sequence ordered polystyrene containing thiourethane and trithiocarbonate units by the RAFT process

A polymer having a trithiocarbonate moiety in the main chain was applied as a polymeric precursor to the synthesis of a sequence ordered polymer by insertion polymerization of styrene into the main chain by a RAFT mechanism.     

Novel polycationic biocides: Synthesis and antibacterial activity of polymeric phosphonium salts

Various polymeric phosphonium salts and the corresponding low-molecular-weight model compounds were prepared and their antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were explored by the viable cell counting method in sterile distilled water. Antibacterial activity of the polymers was found to be higher than that of the corresponding model compounds, particularly against S. aureus. Furthermore, the polymeric phosphonium salt exhibited a higher activity by 2 orders of magnitude than the polymeric quaternary ammonium salt with the same structure except the cationic part. Compounds with the longest alkyl chain (octyl) studied were found to exhibit particularly high activity, and this finding may be ascribed to the contribution of the increased hydrophobicity of the compounds to the cidal activity. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Grafting of a bicycloorthoester onto polymers bearing sulfonium salt structures

Graft copolymerization of a bicycloorthoester (BOE) with polymer-supported sulfonium salts was studied. Several polymer-supported sulfonium salts were prepared by the homopolymerizations of p-vinylbenzyl tetramethylenesulfonium hexafluoroantimonate ( 2 ) and 4-(p-vinylphenyl)butyl tetramethylenesulfonium hexafluoroantimonate ( 3 ), and by the copolymerizations of 2 with some vinyl monomers (n-butyl vinyl ether, styrene, acrylonitrile, and p-styrenesulfonic acid potassium salt). These sulfonium salts could initiate the polymerization of BOE to give grafted polymers. Temperature dependences of the catalytic activity of them were not so dramatic as that of benzyl tetramethylenesulfonium hexafluoroantimonate ( 1 ), but the activities of them were higher than that of 1 at temperatures lower than 80°C. The conversion of BOE in the polymerizations with these polymer initiators was ca. 30–70% at 120°C for 7 h. An effect of the comonomer structure on the catalytic activity was observed and styrene was the best comonomer for 2 in terms of the reactivity of the copolymer. The spacer-modified sulfonium salt (homopolymer of 3 ) was slightly lower than polymer-supported benzyl type sulfonium salt (homopolymer of 2 ) in the catalytic activity.     

Determination of oil–water partition coefficients of polar compounds: silicone membrane equilibrator vs. SPME passive sampler

Experimental determination of oil-water partition coefficients often poses difficulties associated with emulsion formation. The aim of this work was to find an appropriate technique for determination of oil–water partition coefficients of polar, nonvolatile compounds. Two different methods were tested. The first method used a “silicone membrane equilibrator.” For the second method, solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers with a polyacrylate (PA) coating were used as a passive sampler. With both methods, oil–water partition coefficients for 14 compounds with polar functional groups were determined at 37 °C with good repeatability (standard deviation 0.11 log units or lower). The partition coefficients determined with the silicone membrane equilibrator method ranged from 0.50 to 3.49 log units. The oil–water partition coefficients obtained with the PA-SPME passive sampling approach were significantly higher than those obtained with the silicone membrane equilibrator method for nine of 14 compounds. The differences were up to 0.39 log units (i.e., a factor of 2.5). Additional experiments suggested that this difference occurred because the sorption properties of the PA fibers used were influenced by the surrounding phase, e.g., through swelling of the polymer phase. Therefore, the SPME passive sampling method using PA fibers seems to be less reliable, whereas the silicone membrane equilibrator method was found to be a convenient technique for the determination of oil–water partitioning.