Ring‐Opening Polymerization of ϵ‐Caprolactone by Benzoic Acid in the Presence of Benzyl Alcohol as Initiator

Abstract The development of a feasible industrial method for poly(ϵ‐caprolactone) (PCL) preparation is great significant and challenging. bulk ring‐opening polymerization ϵ‐caprolactone (ϵ‐CL) using various organic acid catalysts benzyl alcohol (BnOH) as the initiator was developed. Benzoic (BA) has been proved to be an efficient catalyst ROP ϵ‐CL under mild conditions. conversion PCL 84.7 % optimized reaction conditions, with number‐average molecular weight ( M n ) dispersity (PDI) 7700 g/mol 1.25, respectively. Moreover, monomer‐activated mechanism mediated by benzoic proposed. Overall, this work expected provide organocatalyst.