Catalyzed transesterification kinetics in early stage of polycarbonate melt polymerization

Abstract

In this work, we evaluated catalytic activity of LiOH, Cu(acac)2 and w-butyltin hydroxide oxide hydrate in the early stage of the melt transesterification of isosorbide and bisphenol A as diol monomers and diphenylcarbonate for the melt polymerizaiton of polycarbonate. Cu(acac)2 proved to be the most active catalyst for homopolymerization process, while the catalytic activity of LiOH was higher than the others in case of melt copolymerization depending on the catalytic mechanism and chemical structure of catalyst. We suggested that evaluation of catalytic activity can be used for selection of catalyst system in bio-based copolymerization of polycarbonate.