2019/07/29 by Rami Hador, Antonio Botta, Vincenzo Venditto +4
Materials Science · Chemical Engineering · #biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties #Carbon dioxide utilization in catalysis #Polyoxometalates: Synthesis and Applications
paper · doi:10.1002/ange.201906848
Abstract We describe alkoxo‐aluminum catalysts of chiral bipyrrolidine‐based salan ligands that follow the dual‐stereocontrol mechanism wherein a given combination of stereogeneities at the metal site and the proximal center of the last inserted lactidyl (“match”) is active towards lactide having a proximal stereogenic center of the opposite configuration, while the diastereomeric combination of stereogeneities (“mismatch”) is inactive towards any lactide. Polymerization of rac ‐LA by the enantiomerically pure catalysts was sluggish and gave stereoirregular poly(lactic acid) (PLA) because selective insertion to a match diastereomer gives a mismatch diastereomer. The racemic catalysts showed higher activity and led to highly heterotactic PLA following polymeryl exchange between two mismatched catalyst enantiomers. A succession of match diastereomers in selective meso ‐LA insertions led to syndiotactic PLAs reaching a syndiotacticity degree of α =0.96. This polymer featured a T m of 153 °C matching the highest reported value, and the highest crystallinity (Δ H m =56 J g −1 ) ever reported for syndiotactic PLA.