Howard M. Relles

The Synthesis of Aromatic Polyformals

The synthesis of aliphatic polyformals (1) has been known for many years and is relatively straightforwardl. As shown in equation 1, aliphatic diols can be reacted directly with formaldehyde or dialkyl formals (2) to produce these polymers. The principal complication of the reaction occurs when the diol used contains 2, 3 or 4 carbon atoms in which case the formation of the cyclic formal (3) is favored.