One-Pot Synthesis of Organic-Sulfur-Zinc Hybrid Materials via Polycondensation of a Zinc Salt and Thiols Generated in Situ from Cyclic Dithiocarbonates

Soluble organic-sulfur-zinc hybrid polymers were prepared via a one-pot reaction consisting of ring-opening addition and subsequent polycondensation. The first reaction is the nucleophilic ring-opening addition of 2-ethylhexylamine to multifunctional cyclic dithiocarbonates giving multiple thiols in situ. The sequential polycondensation of the in situ generated thiols with Zn(OAc)(2) gave the target hybrid polymers. This one-pot method enabled the use of a shorter amine than the previous polycondensation of Zn(OAc)(2) and purified thiols, which required octadecylamine to obtain a soluble product. The obtained hybrid polymers may be cast as composite films with polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate). Owing to the shorter alkyl chain, the calculated n(D) values of the products (1.60 or 1.61) are higher than that of the previous product bearing octadecyl chains (1.53).