Facile synthesis of poly(ester-ether)s by combining transesterification and oxa-Michael polyaddition

Poly(ester-ether)s are biodegradable copolymers with excellent performance. These copolymers are used as scaffolds for tissue engineering and degradable materials in packaging. However, their synthesis procedures are generally tedious which restrict their widespread applications. Furthermore, the inadequate availability of their commercial monomers also hampers their production. Herein, we reported a facile strategy for the synthesis of linear and branched poly(ester-ether)s using a polyol and methyl acrylate (MA) as monomers. During the polymerisation, the vinyl bond of MA reacts with the hydroxyl groups of a polyol following an oxa-Michael polyaddition mechanism. Simultaneously, esterification takes place between the ester group of MA and polyol. As a result, poly(ester-ether)s were successfully synthesised by combining these two different types of reactions into one polymerisation system. The linear and branched structures of the products were confirmed by the nuclear magnetic resonance and triple-detector gel permeation chromatography. This work provides a facile strategy for the synthesis of poly(ester-ether)s from commercially available monomers.