Ring opening polymerization of glycidyl methacrylate by Maghnite-H+ a solid catalyst

In the present work the ring-opening polymerization of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) using Maghnite-H+, a proton exchanged montmorillonite clay as initiator is reported. The influences of solvent, weight ratio of initiator/monomer and reaction time on the conversion of monomer and on the molecular weight are investigated. Increasing Maghnite-H+ proportion increases (GMA) conversion and decreases the average molecular weight of resulted polymer. A cationic mechanism for the reaction was proposed.