Highly Efficient Synthesis of Functionalizable Polymers from a CO 2 /1,3-Butadiene-Derived Lactone.

Making polymers from CO 2 and olefins has been long sought and is of particular significance for chemical utilizations of CO 2 . Herein, high molecular-weight polymers with 29 wt % CO 2 were obtained by polymerizing a δ-lactone ( L ) synthesized from a C-C coupling reaction between CO 2 and 1,3-butadiene, an economical large-volume chemical that can also be derived from top biomass platform chemicals. Although L has been known for many years, little was investigated in its polymerization. We found that L 's polymerizability can be vitalized upon simply heating in the presence of O 2 . The polymerization is additive/solvent-free with abundant preserved olefins and up to full monomer conversion, providing a convenient, economical, and scalable avenue to obtain CO 2 -derived polymers with potentially tailorable properties via the readily modifiable olefins.