Disclosed herein are catalyst systems useful for a wide range of ring opening polymerization processes. Epoxides, oxetanes, lactones and cyclic carbonates are all suitable substrates for the ring opening polymerization.

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).

A multilayer body includes at least one layer (A) made of a polycarbonate resin (A) whose main repeating units include a unit (a-1) composed of an ether diol residue represented by the following formula (1) and a unit (a-2) composed of a diol residue represented by the following formula (2), and at least one layer (B) containing an aromatic polycarbonate resin (B), wherein the molar ratio of the unit (a-1) is 50 to 96 mol % and the molar ratio of the unit (a-2) is 4 to 50 mol %, with respect to 100 mol % of the total repeating units of the polycarbonate resin (A) and the proportion of the aromatic polycarbonate resin (B) in the layer (B) containing an aromatic polycarbonate resin (B) is 30% by weight or more, and the multilayer body is excellent in heat resistance, impact resistance, surface hardness, adhesion, and chemical resistance. ##STR00001##
In the formula (2), R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 each independently represent at least one group selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl having 6 to 20 carbon atoms, a cycloalkoxy group having 6 to 20 carbon atoms, an alkenyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 to 10 carbon atoms, an aryloxy group having 6 to 10 carbon atoms, an aralkyl group having 7 to 20 carbon atoms, an aralkyloxy group having 7 to 20 carbon atoms, a nitro group, an aldehyde group, a cyano group, and a carboxyl group, and when a plurality of R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are present, they may be the same or different; a and b each represent an integer of 1 to 4; and W represents at least one bonding group selected from the group consisting of a single bond and a bonding group represented by the following formula (3). ##STR00002##
In the formula (3), R.sup.3, R.sup.4, R.sup.5, R.sup.6, R.sup.7, R.sup.1, R.sup.9, and R.sup.10 each independently represent at least one group selected from the group consisting of a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 to 10 carbon atoms, and an aralkyl group having 7 to 20 carbon atoms, and when a plurality of R.sup.3, R.sup.4, R.sup.5, R.sup.6, R.sup.7, R.sup.8, R.sup.9, and R.sup.10 are present, they may be the same or different; R.sup.11, R.sup.12, R.sup.13, and R.sup.14 each independently represent at least one group selected from the group consisting of an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, a cycloalkenyl group having 6 to 20 carbon atoms, an alkenyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 to 10 atoms, and an aralkyl group having 7 to 20 carbon atoms, and when a plurality of R.sup.11, R.sup.12, R.

Techniques regarding catalyzing one or more ring-opening polymerizations within one or more flow reactors using one or more organometallic bases are provided. For example, one or more embodiments described herein can comprise a method, which can include forming a polymer, via a ring-opening polymerization within a flow reactor, from a cyclic monomer in the presence of an organometallic base and a primary alcohol initiator.

Provided are a polycarbonate having an appropriate refractive index and an appropriate Abbe number, and comprehensively excelling in heat resistance, total light transmittance, and hue, and a molded article thereof. The polycarbonate includes a constituent unit represented by Formula [I] and a constituent unit having a hydrocarbon group containing a cyclic structure. In Formula [I], R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 each independently denote a hydrocarbon group, and each R.sup.3 independently denotes a hydrogen atom, a heteroatom-containing group, a halogen atom-containing group, a linear alkyl group having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a branched alkyl group having from 3 to 6 carbon atoms, or a group including an aryl group and having from 6 to 12 carbon atoms. ##STR00001##

The present invention relates to a polycarbonate diol comprising a structural unit derived from a compound represented by the following formula (A) and a structural unit derived from a compound represented by the following formula (B), wherein the hydroxyl value is from 20 to 450 mg-KOH/g:

HO—R.sup.1—OH  (A)

HO—R.sup.2—OH  (B) the glass transition temperature of said polycarbonate diol as measured by a differential operating calorimeter is −30° C. or less and the average carbon number of a dihydroxy compound obtained by hydrolyzing said polycarbonate diol is from 3 to 5.5.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a polyester carbonate starting from cycloaliphatic diacids and aliphatic diols and to the polyester carbonate prepared by the method. The method according to the invention is a direct synthesis in which all the structural elements that form the subsequent polyester carbonate are already present as monomers in the first step of the method.

A polycarbonate polyol is provided. The polycarbonate polyol comprises a repeating unit represented by the following formula (I) and terminal hydroxyls:

##STR00001##

in formula (I), R is a substituted or unsubstituted C.sub.2-C.sub.20 divalent aliphatic hydrocarbyl, wherein the .sup.1H-NMR spectrum of the polycarbonate polyol has an integral value A of signals from 4.00 ppm to 4.50 ppm and an integral value D of signals from 0.90 ppm to 1.10 ppm, the ratio of D to A (D/A) ranges from 0.03 to 1.45, and the .sup.1H-NMR spectrum is measured by using deuterated chloroform as a solvent and tetramethylsilane as a reference substance.

The disclosure pertains to amphiphilic block copolymers comprising an aliphatic polycarbonate chain coupled to a hydrophilic polymer. Such amphiphilic polymers may have the formula A-L-B, where A- is a polycarbonate or polyethercarbonate chain having from about 3 to about 500 repeating units, L is a linker moiety and -B is a hydrophilic oligomer having from about 4 to about 200 repeating units. Provided copolymers are useful as surfactants capable of emulsifying aqueous solutions and supercritical carbon dioxide. Provided copolymers also have utility as additives for use in enhanced oil recovery methods.