Synthesis and characterization of novel copolymers based on 3(S)-methyl-morpholine-2,5-dione

A series of novel copolymers were successfully synthesized by ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of 3(S)-methyl-morpholine-2,5-dione (MMD) and 5-methyl-5-benzyloxycarbonyl-1,3-dioxan-2-one (MBC) using stannous octoate as catalyst. The copolymers were characterized by means of 1H-NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) test shows that the average-number relative molecular mass and average-weight relative molecular mass slightly increase with the increase of MBC content in feed. The results of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) demonstrate that the glass transition temperature of copolymers increases with the increase of MBC content in copolymers. The copolymers of MMD and MBC are amorphous copolymers, as indicated by DSC results, while the homopolymer of MMD is semicrystalline.