The present disclosure provides compounds of the formula (I): The present disclosure also provides copolymers prepared by polymerizing a first monomer (e.g., dicyclopentadiene) and the compounds. The copolymers may show increased degradability and increased or maintained glass-transition temperature, as compared to homopolymers of the first monomer.

##STR00001##

The invention relates to a polymerization method in which alkyl glycidyl ethers and epoxides, such as ethylene oxide, polypropylene oxide, 1-ethoxyethyl glycidyl ether and gycidol, are copolymerized and block copolymers are synthesized. The inventive methods include an initiator, oligomer blocks of 1 to 40 alkyl glycidyl ether units of type (I), (II) or (III), and 80 to 1000 epoxy units of large polyether blocks, such as polyethylene oxide (PEO), polypropylene oxide (PPO), polyethoxyethylene glycidyl ether (PEEGE), linear and branched polyglycidol (PG, hbPG) or random copolymers of two, three or four different epoxide units, such as ethylene oxide (EO), propylene oxide (PO), 1-ethoxyethyl glycidyl ether (EEGE) and/or glycidol.

The present disclosure is directed to certain polyethers copolymers, and polyether derivatives thereof, and methods of making and using the same. For example, the starting materials may include such species as citronellol, geraniol, dihydromyrcene, adipic acid, propanediol, ethylene glycol, glycerol, 1,9-nonanediol, and 1,6-hexanediol.

It is provided a method for manufacturing a hyperbranched polyester polyol derivative, comprising the following steps: a) reacting only glycidol and -caprolactone at a temperature lying in a range of between 40 C. and 140 C. to obtain a hyperbranched polyester polyol in which caprolactone residues are randomly arranged; b) reacting the hyperbranched polyester polyol of step a) with a sulfation reagent to obtain a sulfated hyperbranched polyester polyol as hyperbranched polyester polyol derivative.

This invention relates to a process for the continuous production of polyether polyols, polyether polyols produced by the inventive continuous process and their use in polyurethane applications.

This invention relates to a process for the continuous production of polyether polyols, polyether polyols produced by the inventive continuous process and their use in polyurethane applications.

This invention relates to a process for the continuous production of polyether polyols, polyether polyols produced by the inventive continuous process and their use in polyurethane applications.

The invention relates to a method for adding a compound (A) to an H-functional starting compound (BH) in the presence of a catalyst, wherein the at least one compound (A) is selected from at least one group consisting of alkylene oxide (A-1), lactone (A-2), lactide (A-3), cyclic acetal (A-4), lactam (A-5), cyclic anhydride (A-6) and oxygen-containing heterocyclic compound (A-7) different from (A-1), (A-2), (A-3), (A-4) and (A-6), wherein the catalyst comprises an organic, n-protic Brnsted acid (C), wherein n2 and is an element of the natural numbers and the degree of protolysis D is 0<D<n, with n as the maximum number of transferable protons and D as the calculated proton fraction of the organic, n-protic Brnsted acid (C). The invention further relates to an n-protic Brnsted acid (C) having a degree of protolysis D of 0<D<n, wherein n is the maximum number of transferable protons, with n=2, 3 or 4, and D is the calculated proton fraction of the organic, n-protic Brnsted acid (C).

The present disclosure relates to block copolymers comprising, and methods of making thereof, a polycarbonate chain linked to a hydrophilic polymer. Such block copolymers may have the formula B-A-B, where A is a polycarbonate or polyethercarbonate chain and B is a polyether. Provided methods are useful in reducing the amount of waste generated from the synthesis of polycarbonates and provide improved thermal stability and high primary hydroxyl content. Provided block copolymers also have utility as additives in enhanced oil recovery methods, and foam polymer applications.

A crosslinked polymeric composition comprising the following components: (i) a matrix comprising an epoxy-anhydride crosslinked polymer containing a multiplicity of ester linkages resulting from reaction between epoxy-containing and anhydride-containing molecules; and (ii) a hydroxy-containing solid filler component integrated into component (i) and engaged in dynamic reversible covalent crosslinking with component (i) by a reversible exchange reaction between the ester linkages and hydroxy groups in the hydroxy-containing solid filler; wherein the crosslinked polymeric composition behaves as a thermoset up to a temperature X and behaves as a processible thermoplastic at a temperature greater than X. Also described herein is a method for producing the above composition comprising combining and mixing the following components: (a) epoxy-containing molecules, (b) anhydride-containing molecules, (c) a hydroxy-containing solid filler, and (d) a catalyst that promotes curing between epoxy and anhydride groups, followed by heating of the resultant mixture to a temperature of least 100? C.