Ring‐Opening Oligomerization Mechanism of a Vanillin‐Furfurylamine‐Based Benzoxazine and a Mono‐Azomethine Derivative

Exploring the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) mechanism of benzoxazines is a fundamental issue in benzoxazine chemistry. Though some research papers on the topic have been reported, the ROP mechanism of mono-benzoxazines is still elusive. The key point for mechanistic studies is to determine and characterize the structure and formation pathways of the products generated in ROP. In this paper, the ROP of a vanillin-furfurylamine-based benzoxazine and a mono-azomethine derivative is studied with differential scanning calorimetry, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, respectively. The results show that the products consist of a range of cationic species, zwitterions, fragments, and series of cyclic and linear oligomers of varying molecular sizes. It is proposed that both mono-benzoxazines undergo thermally activated cationic ring-opening oligomerization via zwitterion intermediates. Upon thermal induction, multi-bond-cleavage takes place to form various zwitterionic intermediates, which react with a monomer, a fragment, or a second zwitterion by several pathways to generate cyclic and linear oligomers.