E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Gary A Hida

Suriyanarayan Dorai

Willard L Quon

Kirk Matthew Schall

A process for forming polytetramethylene ether glycol having a number average molecular weight of 600 to 2,200 by contacting tetrahydrofuran with 5 to 50 wt %, based on tetrahydrofuran, trifluoromethane sulfonic acid monohydrate and water at 20.degree. to 75.degree. C. is disclosed.

Polymerization of tetrahydrofuran using trifluoromethane sulfonic acid

A process for polymerizing tetrahydrofuran using a fluorinated resin containing sulfonic acid groups a trifluoromethane sulfonic acid as catalyst and a mixture of maleic acid and maleic anhydride as weight control agent. The product has the formula ##STR1## which can be hydrogenated to produce polytetramethylene ether glycol. The preferred molecular weight range of the polytetramethylene ether glycol is 600 to 4,000.

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Wilmington, DE, United States of America

Gary A Hida