Preparation and characterization of a novel hyperbranched polyphosphate ester

Polyphosphate esters have received a great deal of attention due to their important application in biomaterials field. Hyperbranched structure of polymers may support unique properties, including low viscosity and perfect intrinsic property. We report here three generations of hyperbranched polyphosphate esters (HPPE-1, HPPE-2 and HPPE-3) synthesized from a dehydrochlorination reaction between 1,3,5-tris(2-hydroxyethyl)cyanuric acid (THEIC) and phosphorus oxychloride (POCl₃), and characterize their chemical structures by FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ³¹P NMR and 2D NMR (¹H,¹H-COSY and ¹³C, ¹H-HSQC) techniques. Degrees of branching of HPPE-1, HPPE-2 and HPPE-3 are 0.90, 0.91 and 0.87 respectively from the calculation of their ¹³C NMR spectra. Molecular weights of HPPE-1, HPPE-2 and HPPE-3 are m/z 1530, 1768 and 2750 from their MALDI-TOF-MS spectra. Study on thermal degradation mechanism of the HPPE-2 by a 3D FT-IR/TG technology shows that there are two cracking processes of its molecular chains, including the thermal degradation of hydroxylethyl-ended groups, nitrogen heterocycle and –CH₂CH₂– groups of HPPE-2.