Triarylborane-Catalyzed Ring-Opening Polymerization of Propylene Oxide: A Pathway to Superior Polyurethanes
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane (BCF) is a highly active catalyst in the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of propylene oxide (PO) and yields polyether polyols with high primary alcohol (1° OH) selectivity. However, an unwanted side reaction in which BCF isomerizes PO to propionaldehyde (PA) has limited its industrial applicability. Herein, we demonstrate that the selectivity for both 1° OH and PA formation can be tuned through substitution changes on the triarylborane framework. A scalable polymerization process involving dual-stage catalyst addition with tris(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)borane ( 1 ) was developed, enabling improved economics through reduction in catalyst usage. Poly(propylene oxide) triols were synthesized using the optimized process at parts per million (ppm) levels of catalyst and benchmarked against analogous KOH-catalyzed polyols in a flexible packaging adhesive polyurethane application (PU). PU films with fewer defects (bubbles) and improved tensile strength were produced. This work highlights the central role of catalysis in achieving affordable, yet improved, materials, especially in proven and mature markets.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".