Continuous production of hyperbranched polyhydrocarbons by electrochemical polymerization of chlorinated methanes

A continuous production of polyhydrocarbon (PHC) by electrochemical polymerization of chlorinated hydrocarbons is presented. Monomer loading and product transfer were controlled by changing flow direction in a home-built continuous flow system that facilitates preparation, work-up, and scale-up of electrochemical polymerization. The polymerization can be tuned by adjusting reaction time, cell configuration, molar ratio of input chemicals, and the solvent type. CH2Cl2, CHCl3, and CCl4 were used to synthesize PHC. The reduction of the monomers at the cathode was studied by cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. We investigated the structure and composition of PHCs from FT-IR and NMR spectra along with elemental analysis. Sufficient amounts of product are generated by continuous production and characterization of the product PHCs by a wide variety of methods is possible. Particularly, structural analysis by various C-13 NMR techniques suggests a new pathway for the synthesis of hyperbranched PHCs by electrochemical polymerization.