Cationic polymerization of ϵ-caprolactone in the presence of diols via activated monomer mechanism

The kinetics of noncatalytic and catalytic interaction of ϵ-caprolactone (ϵ-CL) with a variety of diols in the presence of onium-type catalysts as well as the resulting products structure were investigated. The phenomenon of the direction change of the lactone ring opening during the interaction with hydroxyl-containing compounds of different functionality was discovered. The features of the reactions investigated were discussed and their kinetic parameters were determined.