Described herein are methods of preparing poly(alkylene carbonate) polymers comprising an increased ratio of primary hydroxyl end groups to secondary hydroxyl end groups, and compositions thereof.

Described herein are methods of preparing poly(alkylene carbonate) polymers comprising an increased ratio of primary hydroxyl end groups to secondary hydroxyl end groups, and compositions thereof.

The present disclosure relates to a method for preparing a polyalkylene carbonate. More specifically, provided is a method for preparing a polyalkylene carbonate in which after polymerization of polyalkylene carbonate, a mixture from which unreacted carbon dioxide and residual catalyst have been removed is charged into a stripper to remove the unreacted epoxide compound, and then heat-exchanged before removing the solvent to increase the temperature of the mixture stream to the maximum level, which is subjected to a heating step, following by a solvent removal step, whereby the amount of steam required in the heating step is reduced, side reactions due to unreacted epoxide compounds are prevented, and steam energy can be reduced in the solvent removal step.

A method of continuously producing a polyol includes: (i) feeding a solid catalyst into a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR); (ii) contacting a reaction mixture comprising one or more epoxides and carbon dioxide with the solid catalyst and a chain transfer agent comprising a plurality of sites capable of initiating copolymerization of epoxides and carbon dioxide in the CSTR; (iii) allowing polymerization reaction to proceed until a desired molecular weight polyol has formed; and (iv) terminating the polymerization reaction.

The invention provides a process for producing diol, characterized in that the process comprises the steps of (1-i) addition of alkylene oxide and carbon dioxide to an H-functional starter substance in the presence of a catalyst to obtain polyether carbonate polyol and cyclic carbonate, (1-ii) separation of the cyclic carbonate from the resulting reaction mixture from step (1-i), (1-iii) hydrolytic cleavage of the cyclic carbonate separated from step (1-ii) into carbon dioxide and diol, (1-iv) optionally distillative purification of the diol from step (1-iii), wherein (η) to the cyclic carbonate from step (1-ii) and/or to the diol a Lewis or Brønsted acid, excluding carboxylic acids having a pKa of >3.0, and optionally water are added and the reaction mixture obtained is optionally neutralized.

Provided is a method for producing an oligocarbonate polyol devoid of aromatic groups and phenolic functions, comprising a step of polycondensation by transesterification of monomers (A1) and/or dimers (A2) and of diol monomers (B1) and/or of triol monomers (B2), in a particular molar ratio, in order to obtain an oligocarbonate polyol having a molar mass of less than 5000 g/mol and at least two hydroxyl-type chain ends, the monomer (A1) corresponding to the following formula: (A1) and the dimer (A2) corresponding to the following formula: (A2) as well as the oligocarbonate polyol that can be obtained by this method and the polycarbonate that can be obtained by reacting this oligocarbonate with a polyisocyanate. ##STR00001##

There is provided a bone cement composition comprising: a powder component comprising at least one acrylic polymer a liquid component comprising a monomer; an antibiotic; and an acid-functionalised polymer, wherein reaction of the powder component and the liquid component results in formation of a bone cement. In a preferred embodiment, the acid-functionalised polymer is selected from polyethylene glycol-polycarbonate (PEG-PAC), polycarbonate-poly(L-lactide) (PAC-PLLA), polycarbonate-poly(D-lactide) (PAC-PDLA), PAC-PLLA/PDLA, copolymers thereof or a combination thereof. There is also provided a bone cement formed from the bone cement composition.

There is provided a bone cement composition comprising: a powder component comprising at least one acrylic polymer a liquid component comprising a monomer; an antibiotic; and an acid-functionalised polymer, wherein reaction of the powder component and the liquid component results in formation of a bone cement. In a preferred embodiment, the acid-functionalised polymer is selected from polyethylene glycol-polycarbonate (PEG-PAC), polycarbonate-poly(L-lactide) (PAC-PLLA), polycarbonate-poly(D-lactide) (PAC-PDLA), PAC-PLLA/PDLA, copolymers thereof or a combination thereof. There is also provided a bone cement formed from the bone cement composition.

Alkylene carbonates are removed from polyether-carbonate polymers by contacting the polyether-carbonate with an absorbent at a temperature of 30 to 150° C. The process is effective and inexpensive. The purified polyether-carbonate is useful for making polyurethanes as well as in many other applications.

An object of this invention is to find a method for introducing a functional group into an aliphatic polycarbonate without impairing the excellent thermal decomposition property of the aliphatic polycarbonate.

An aliphatic polycarbonate comprising a constituent unit represented by formula (1):

##STR00001##

wherein R.sup.1, R.sup.2, and R.sup.3 are identical or different, and each represents a hydrogen atom, a C.sub.1-10 alkyl group optionally substituted with one or more substituents, or a C.sub.6-20 aryl group optionally substituted with one or more substituents, wherein two groups from among R.sup.1 to R.sup.3, taken together with the carbon atom or carbon atoms to which these groups are attached, may form a substituted or unsubstituted, saturated or unsaturated 3- to 10-membered aliphatic ring; and X represents a divalent group containing one or more heteroatoms or an alkylene group having 3 or more carbon atoms, and a constituent unit represented by formula (2):

##STR00002##

wherein R.sup.4, R.sup.5, R.sup.6, and R.sup.7 are identical or different, and each represents a hydrogen atom, a C.sub.1-10 alkyl group optionally substituted with one or more substituents, or a C.sub.6-20 aryl group optionally substituted with one or more substituents, wherein two groups from among R.sup.4 to R.sup.7, taken together with the carbon atom or carbon atoms to which these groups are attached, may form a substituted or unsubstituted, saturated or unsaturated 3- to 10-membered aliphatic ring, the content of the constituent unit represented by formula (1) being 0.1 mol % or more and 1.5 mol % or less, based on the total amount of the constituent units of formula (1) and formula (2).