A rapid synthesis of poly (p-dioxanone) by ring-opening polymerization under microwave irradiation

A rapid synthesis of poly(p-dioxanone) (PPDO) was carried out smoothly and effectively from the monomer p-dioxanone (PDO) with constant microwave powers of 90, 180, 270, and 360 W, respectively, in a microwave oven at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. The temperature of the polymerization ranged from 158 to 198 degrees C. PPDO with a viscosity-average molecular weight (Mv) of 156,000g/mol and yield of 63% was obtained at 270W for 25 min using 1/1000 (mol/mol) Sn(Oct)(2) as a catalyst, while it took more than 14h to obtain PPDO with high molecular weight and monomer conversion by conventional heating method when Sn(Oct)(2) used as a catalyst. Therefore, it is obvious that the polymerization rate is faster than that of the conventional polymerization method when microwave irradiation is used in polymerization process.