Synthesis of Hydroxyl-Terminated Polyether (HTPE) by Innovative Approach Using The Williamson Method

The high-filled composite mainly consists of a prepolymer, inorganic oxidizer, metal fuel and additives. The most common prepolymer used in the world is hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), which has good physical, mechanical and load-bearing properties. A new type of prepolymers is hydroxyl-terminated polyether (HTPE), which in addition to the advantages of HTPB, has other unique features due to its polarity as a consequense of oxygen atom participation in backbone. Synthesis of HTPE has been carried out by an innovative  approach using the Williamson method by oligomeric reactants. Characterization results of prepolymer  showed good agreement with references. The number average molecular weight (Mn) up to 4,260 g/mol was obtained. The different molecular weight obtained is due to the difference in molecular weight of di-alcohol oligoemeres. The advantages of this method include its simplicity and good efficiency in comparison to cationic ring-opening polymerization (CROP) of monomers.