Polymerizations with Elemental Sulfur: From Petroleum Refining to Polymeric Materials
Taeheon Lee, Philip T. Dirlam, Jón T. Njardarson, Richard S. Glass, Jeffrey Pyun
Abstract
The production of elemental sulfur from petroleum refining has created a technological opportunity to increase the valorization of elemental sulfur by the synthesis of high-performance sulfur-based plastics with improved optical, electrochemical, and mechanical properties aimed at applications in thermal imaging, energy storage, self-healable materials, and separation science. In this Perspective, we discuss efforts in the past decade that have revived this area of organosulfur and polymer chemistry to afford a new class of high-sulfur-content polymers prepared from the polymerization of liquid sulfur with unsaturated monomers, termed inverse vulcanization.
Topics & Concepts
Organosulfur compoundsSulfurChemistryRefining (metallurgy)PolymerizationVulcanizationPolymerDistillationOrganic chemistryMonomerChemical engineeringNatural rubberEngineeringPhysical chemistrySynthesis and properties of polymersSilicone and Siloxane ChemistryEpoxy Resin Curing Processes