Patent ID: 8415448

Claim:
A process for polymerizing five-, six- or seven-membered cyclic carbonates by ring-opening polymerization in the presence of a system comprising: a metal salt selected from the group consisting of triflate, triflimidate, acetylacetonate and carboxylate; and an alcohol, wherein the alcohol is represented by the formula R′OH, a poly-ol selected from the group consisting of diol, triol and a polyhydridic alcohol represented by the form R′(OH) n , or a combination thereof, wherein R′ is an hydrocarbyl, linear or branched having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, wherein the number average molecular weight Mn of the final polymer is controlled by the ratio monomer/alcohol, and wherein the ratio monomer/alcohol is of from 5 to 1000 and the ratio monomer to metal is of from 100 to 1,000,000, and wherein the metal salt is a metallic complex of formula M(OSO 2 CF 3 ) n (OTf) or M(N(OSO 2 CF 3 ) 2 ) n (NTf 2 ) or M(RC(O)CR 2 C(O)R) n (acac) or (R″CO 2 ) n M (carboxylates), wherein M is a metal Group 2, 3, including the lanthanide series Ln, 4, 12, 13, 14 or 15 of the periodic Table, wherein each R is selected independently from a linear or branched hydrocarbyl radical having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms, wherein each R″ is selected independently from a perfluorinated alkyl or aryl residue having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms, and wherein n is the valence of M.