Inventors: Raghuraman, Arjun (Pearland, TX, US)
Heath, William H. (Lake Jackson, TX, US),
Mukhopadhyay, Sukrit (Midland, MI, US),
Spinney, Heather A. (Midland, MI, US),
Wilson, David R. (Midland, MI, US),
Gies, Anthony P. (Lake Jackson, TX, US),
Paradkar, Manjiri R. (Lake Jackson, TX, US),
Notestein, Justin M. (Evanston, IL, US),
Nguyen, Sonbinh T. (Evanston, IL, US)
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Assignees:
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Dow Global Technologies LLC (Midland, MI, US)
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Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, US)
A method of producing a polyether polyol that includes reacting a low molecular weight initiator with one or more monomers in the presence of a polymerization catalyst, the low molecular weight initiator having a number average molecular weight of less than 1,000 g/mol and a nominal hydroxyl functionality at least 2, the one or more monomers including at least one selected from propylene oxide and butylene oxide, and the polymerization catalyst being a Lewis acid catalyst having the general formula M(R1)1(R2)1(R3)1(R4)0 or 1. Whereas, M is boron, aluminum, indium, bismuth or erbium, R1, R2, and R3 each includes a same fluoroalkyl-substituted phenyl group, and optional R4 includes a functional group or functional polymer group. The method further includes forming a polyether polyol having a number average molecular weight of greater than the number average molecular weight of the low molecular weight initiator in the presence of the Lewis acid catalyst.
