Polymerizations with Elemental Sulfur: From Petroleum Refining to Polymeric Materials

Authors

Taeheon Lee, The University of Arizona
Philip T. Dirlam, San Jose State UniversityFollow
Jon T. Njardarson, The University of Arizona
Richard S. Glass, The University of Arizona
Jeffrey Pyun, The University of Arizona

Publication Date

1-12-2022

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Volume

144

Issue

1

DOI

10.1021/jacs.1c09329

First Page

5

Last Page

22

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.

Funding Number

CHE-1807395

Funding Sponsor

National Science Foundation

Department

Chemistry

Recommended Citation

Taeheon Lee, Philip T. Dirlam, Jon T. Njardarson, Richard S. Glass, and Jeffrey Pyun. "Polymerizations with Elemental Sulfur: From Petroleum Refining to Polymeric Materials" Journal of the American Chemical Society (2022): 5-22. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c09329