Abstract
The natural product dihydrocarvone, found in caraway oil, was oxidized to an epoxylactone on a multigram scale. The resulting epoxylactone was used as a multifunctional monomer and cross-linker in ring-opening polymerizations. Homopolymerization using diethylzinc and tin(II) 2-ethylhexanoate gave only low molecular weight oligomers (apparent Mn less than 2.5 kg/mol). Copolymerizations of ε-caprolactone and 0.3 to 50% of the epoxylactone gave flexible cross-linked materials on a multigram scale in a one-step synthesis. The gel fraction of these copolymers was determined. These copolymers showed near perfect shape memory properties even after repeated bending.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2003-2008 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Biomacromolecules |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 13 2009 |