Direct Synthesis of Polyesterether from Ethylene glycol

We report here a new method of making polyesterether from ethylene glycol. The reaction is catalysed by a ruthenium com-plex and liberates H2 gas and H2O as by-products. Preliminary mechanistic studies suggest that the reaction proceeds by the dehydrogenation of ethylene glycol to glycoaldehyde which can subsequently react with another ethylene glycol to make a hemiacetal intermediate. Hemiacetal intermediate can either dehydrogenate to make ester or dehydrate to make ether result-ing in the formation of polyesterether. Investigation into the polymerization of other diols has also been conducted that shows that diols with lower number of carbons between both the alcohol groups (propylene glycol, glycerol, and 1,3-propanediol) lead to the formation of polyesterether whereas α,ω-diols containing higher number of carbons (1,6-hexanediol, and 1,10-decanediol) lead to the formation of polyester.