BACKGROUND

The subject disclosure relates to the use of a flow reactor to facilitate one or more ring-opening polymerizations, and more specifically, to using one or more flow reactors to facilitate one or more ring-opening polymerizations comprising a urea and/or thiourea anion catalyst.

The United States federal government publishes regulations (e.g., Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)) to ensure the quality of pharmaceutical compounds, medical devices, and/or food. These regulations can regard the manufacturing, processing, packaging, and/or formulation of various products. Moreover, these regulations address issues of production, starting materials, sanitation, cleanliness of equipment, and/or monitoring through requisite tests. To meet these regulations, traditional industrialization techniques in the chemical industry have included batch processing, in which a series of operations are carried out over a period of time on a separate, identifiable item or parcel of material. Numerous chemical process industries retain batch processing as their primary method of manufacture. For example, products traditionally manufactured by batch processing can include pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dyestuffs, food additives, vitamins, and/or the like. For instance, numerous polymers, such as polyesters and/or polycarbonates, have been traditionally manufactured using batch processing.

However, batch processing can be time-consuming, require the design of manufacturing stages that can be difficult to reproduce, can necessitate adverse safety conditions (e.g., due to the transportation of chemicals and/or storage of volatile chemicals), can require a large labor force, and/or can be difficult to automate.

SUMMARY

The following presents a summary to provide a basic understanding of one or more embodiments of the invention. This summary is not intended to identify key or critical elements, or delineate any scope of the particular embodiments or any scope of the claims. Its sole purpose is to present concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. In one or more embodiments described herein, systems, apparatuses, and/or methods that can regard one or more ring-opening polymerizations within one or more flow reactors are described.

According to an embodiment, a method is provided. The method can comprise polymerizing, via a ring-opening polymerization within a flow reactor, a cyclic monomer in the presence an organocatalyst comprising a urea anion. An advantage of such a method can include the implementation of continuous processing to increase chemical reaction rates, as compared to traditional techniques. In some examples, the method can comprise reacting, via a second ring-opening polymerization within the flow reactor, an intermediate polymer with a second cyclic monomer in the presence of a chemical compound to form a block copolymer. The intermediate polymer can be formed from the polymerizing the cyclic monomer. Also, the chemical compound can comprise a functional group selected from a group consisting of a urea group and a thiourea group. An advantage of such a method can include the implementation of continuous processing to manufacture one or more copolymers (e.g., block copolymers).

According to another embodiment, a method is provided. The method can comprise polymerizing, via a ring-opening polymerization within a flow reactor, a cyclic monomer in the presence of an organocatalyst comprising a thiourea anion. An advantage of such a method can include the implementation of continuous processing to achieve manufacturing techniques that are highly reproducible, as compared to traditional industrialize polymerizations. In some examples, the method can comprise reacting, via a second ring-opening polymerization within the flow reactor, an intermediate polymer with a second cyclic monomer in the presence of a chemical compound to form a block copolymer. The intermediate polymer can be formed from the polymerizing the cyclic monomer. Also, the chemical compound can comprise a functional group selected from a group consisting of a urea group and a thiourea group. An advantage of such a method can be that an active catalyst can be switched during continuous processing of a copolymer to facilitate varying chemical reaction rates.

According to an embodiment, a system is provided. The system can comprise a flow reactor that can house a stream of chemical reactants to facilitate a polymerization. The system can also comprise a memory that stores computer executable components. Further, the system can comprise a processor, operably coupled to the memory, and that executes the computer executable components stored in the memory. The computer executable components can comprise an analysis component, operatively coupled to the processor, that can control a parameter of the flow reactor based on a characteristic of a polymer produced by the polymerization. An advantage of such a system can be that cognitive software applications can facilitate discovery of novel chemical compounds and/or novel manufacturing techniques using continuous processing.

In some examples, the flow reactor can comprise a sensor that can detect the characteristic. The parameter can affect a polymerization condition of the polymerization. Also, the polymerization condition can be selected from a group consisting of a flow rate of the stream, a turbulence of the stream within the flow reactor, and an amount of chemical reactants comprised within the stream. An advantage of such a system can be optimization of one or more polymerization conditions within the flow reactor.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided. The method can comprise forming a polyester by a ring-opening polymerization of a cyclic monomer in the presence of an organocatylst comprising an anion. The ring-opening polymerization can be performed within a flow reactor. An advantage of such a method can be that one or more polyesters can be formed via continuous processing rather than traditional batch processing techniques. In some examples, the anion can be selected from a group consisting of a urea anion and a thiourea anion. An advantage of such a method can be that the selected anion can facilitate polyester reaction rates that can be substantially shorter than reaction rates achieved via traditional polymerization conditions.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided. The method can comprise forming a polycarbonate by a ring-opening polymerization of a cyclic monomer in the presence of an organocatylst comprising an anion. The ring-opening polymerization can be performed within a flow reactor. An advantage of such a method can be that one or more polycarbonates can be formed via continuous processing rather than traditional batch processing techniques. In some examples, the cyclic monomer can be a cyclic carbonate monomer. Also, the anion can be selected from a group consisting of a urea anion and a thiourea anion. An advantage of such a method can be that the selected anion can facilitate polycarbonate reaction rates that can be substantially shorter than reaction rates achieved via traditional polymerization conditions.

