New opportunities for organocatalysis in the synthesis of aliphatic polyesters, polycarbonates and polyurethanes

Abstract

The use of organic catalysts known as Organocatalysis can be traced back at least a century to the enentioselective synthesis small molecules. However since 2001, the use of such organic molecules as catalysts has been offering a number of opportunities not only in organic chemistry but also in polymer synthesis. This thesis deals with the synthesis of different polymers obtained with a variety of organic catalysts. Particularly aliphatic polyesters, polycarbonates and polyurethanes with different properties and designed for certain applications were synthesized via organocatalysis. The use of organic molecules as catalysts for particular polymerization reactions presented in this work can provide an idea of the actual opportunities and challenges of Organocatalysis in polymer science.The thesis has been divided as follows:Chapter 1: Motivation and general objectives are presented.Chapter 2: A literature overview to introduce organocatalysis into polymer field is collected.Chapter 3: Two novel examples of synthesis of aliphatic polyesters using organocatalysis are detailed described.Chapter 4: The organocatalyzed synthesis of polycarbonate hydrogels with particular properties for biomedical wound healing applications is investigated.Chapter 5: The synthesis of functionalized polyurethanes using organic catalysts is presented.Chapter 6: The general conclusions based on investigations carried out in this thesis are summarized in this chapter.