Ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone using rare earth tris(4-tert-butylphenolate)s as a single component initiator

Ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone has been carried out by using single component rare earth tris(4-tert-butylphenolate)s initiators for the first time. The influences of rare earth element, solvent, monomer and initiator concentration as well as reaction time on the polymerization were investigated. The kinetics indicated that the polymerization rate is first-order with respect to monomer concentration and initiator concentration, respectively. The overall activation energy of the ring-opening polymerization amounts to 51.9 kJ/mol. Mechanism studies showed that monomer inserted into the growing chains with the acyl-oxygen bond scission rather than the break of alkyl-oxygen bond.