High Sulfur Content Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Polymeric Materials

The development of chemistry and processing methods for the utilization of elemental sulfur into polymeric materials provides a unique opportunity for addressing the substantial waste surfeit of sulfur generated via petroleum refining. Perhaps the most well-known reaction accessible from elemental sulfur is the ring-opening homopolymerization (ROP) of S8 to form polymeric sulfur. This is also one of the most widely known reactions conducted in molten sulfur, which is essentially a bulk free-radical polymerization process. A major breakthrough in the modern use of elemental sulfur for polymeric materials was the concept of using liquid sulfur as the reaction medium for chemical reactions. The preparation of well-defined high sulfur-content polymers is complicated by several synthetic and solubility issues associated with S-S bonds. To overcome these challenges, we pursued a synthetic strategy employing ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of a cyclic sulfide functional norbornene.