656: Design of modular ecological Poly(trimethyleneCarbonate) based coating

There is growing interest in aliphatic polycarbonates, due to their biocompatibility, and biodegradable properties. Moreover, the monomers used to produce aliphatic polycarbonates can be biobased, and various functional groups can be incorporated to control the properties of the resulting polymers. For example, they can be incorporated to control the polymer structure or to regulate biodegradation. Currently, aliphatic polycarbonates are primarily being studied for biomedical applications¹.

The aim of this study is to develop poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) coatings and investigate their properties. PTMC exhibits limited mechanical properties and therefore requires a cross-linking step to form coatings. To achieve this, we propose the development of copolymers with trimethylene carbonate (TMC) and 5-methyl-5-allyloxycarbonyl-1,3-dioxan-2-one (MAC), using ring-opening polymerization (ROP) with organic catalysts². MAC contains an allyl functional group that enables cross-linking of the copolymer chains via a thiol-ene reaction. However, to obtain a homogeneous coating, it is essential that the allyl group is randomly incorporated into the copolymer chain. Achieving the formation of random copolymers through controlled copolymerization, without the use of metal catalysts, is the main technical challenge of this study. In order to synthesize these random copolymers, we will perform kinetic monitoring of both monomers to identify the optimal polymerization conditions. The synthesized copolymers will enable the creation of networks with different cross-link densities, by adjusting molecular weights, monomer ratios, and cross-linking agents.