A new radical initiation for the ring-opening polymerization of tetrahydrofuran with a radical substitution mechanism

A new radical-Lewis acid system has been discovered to achieve the ring-opening polymerization of tetrahydrofuran. Different types of reaction mechanisms were discovered for the initiation and polymerization processes. The proposed initiation mechanism was studied by MALDI-TOF and ESI-MS as a radical substitution mechanism and polymerization was a coordination-insertion mechanism. And polytetrahydrofuran with high molecular weight (Mn = 14.6 × 104 g mol−1) and narrow molecular weight distribution (PDI = 1.44) could be obtained.