In this work, an investigation was made of the glycerol polymerization in the presence of acid (H2SO4 or H3PO4) and base (NaOH) catalysts to produce thermosetting resins. The results showed that the reaction temperature and catalyst concentration are critical to obtain good yield and selectivity. Under optimum condition, i.e. H2SO4 catalyst, 140 °C for 24 hours it was possible to obtain polymers with 98% selectivity. After the polymerization the materials were submitted to extractions with different solvents, i.e. water, THF and hexane. The extracts were characterized by ESI(+)-MS (Electro-Spray Ionization Mass Spectrometry) and by FTIR, showing the presence of short-chain oligomers (up to six units). For shorter reaction times, e.g. 4 hours, it was possible to obtain high selectivity (100%) for oligomers, but with low glycerol conversion (25%). It was also observed that the other catalysts (H3PO4 and NaOH) showed low activity to promote glycerol polymerization, e.g. yields of 25% after 24 hours.
Glycerol; polymerization; thermosetting resin; polyglycerol
