A convenient synthesis for 3,3-Bis(bromoethyl)oxetane

3,3-Bis(bromomethyl) oxetane (BBrMO) is a versatile building block in polymeric chemistry. BBrMO can be polymerized by catatonic initiators to give homopolymer poly-3,3-bis(bromomethyl) oxetane or it can be copolymerized with other monomers. The bromo substituents of BBrMO allow easy nucleophilic substitution reactions on the monomer and also on the copolymers. So BBrMO plays an important role for the synthesis of azido polymers which are intensively under evaluation studies for energetic binders in propellants and high explosives [1] [2]. The analogue chloro compound 3,3-bis(chloromethyl) oxetane (BCMO) can replace BBrMO in the synthesis of energetic binders only for the preparation of energetic monomer 3,3-bis(azidomethyl) oxetane (BAMO). However, the handling of the sensitive monomer BAMO is dangerous and requires strong safety precautions. When BCMO is first polymerized or copolymerized, the following azidation step could give problems with solubility of the homopolymer and also the slow kinetic of chloro substitution restrict the quantitative replacement of chloro versus azido substituents.