Anionic copolymerisation of elemental sulphur

Abstract

FEW elements are able to form long polymeric chains. This is a feature of carbon atoms, and carbon polymers are usually stable because of the high energy required to break the carbon–carbon single bond and because the further depropagation of the macroradicals, formed by this homolytic splitting of the chain, would usually require additional energy. Here we describe a method for preparing copolymers of sulphur with propylene sulphide; this new method, based on the direct anionic copolymerisation of elemental sulphur is using an ability of sulphur atoms to give polymeric chains.