What is it about?
While glycerol is used as an example, the results show that any compound containing 1,2-glycol structure in presence of alkaline catalysts forms a transient epoxy group, which can react with any hydroxyl group in the system. This allows generation of a large family of new ethers useful as additives or polyethers for foams, coating, and adhesives. This argument is supported by the examples of copolymers of glycerol, polyglycerols, and 1,2,6-hexane triol with triethanolamine or timethylolpropane.
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Why is it important?
Potentially it may have a lot of practical applications for making new products.
Perspectives
While formation of transitional epoxy groups during polymerization of glycerol was suggested earlier, we extended the concept to any compound having OH groups in their structure at the positions1 and 2. This could be a platform for a new line of products and polymers.
Professor Zoran S Petrovic
Pittsburg State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: On the Mechanism of Base-Catalyzed Glycerol Polymerization and Copolymerization, European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology, May 2018, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/ejlt.201800004.
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