Highly Efficient Synthesis of Functionalizable Polymers from a CO2/1,3-Butadiene-Derived Lactone.

Making polymers from CO2 and olefins has been long sought and is of particular significance for chemical utilizations of CO2. Herein, high molecular-weight polymers with 29 wt % CO2 were obtained by polymerizing a δ-lactone (L) synthesized from a C-C coupling reaction between CO2 and 1,3-butadiene, an economical large-volume chemical that can also be derived from top biomass platform chemicals. Although L has been known for many years, little was investigated in its polymerization. We found that L's polymerizability can be vitalized upon simply heating in the presence of O2. The polymerization is additive/solvent-free with abundant preserved olefins and up to full monomer conversion, providing a convenient, economical, and scalable avenue to obtain CO2-derived polymers with potentially tailorable properties via the readily modifiable olefins.