Carbon monoxide is an inexpensive and renewable feedstock for the production of biologically active small molecules. Epoxide carbonylation, therefore, has become a powerful, atom-economical synthetic method in the field of sustainable chemistry for the introduction of new carbon-carbon bonds. Resulting β-lactones are versatile intermediates that are frequently used in natural product synthesis, ring-opened to aldol adducts, and polymerized to form biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates. Different carbonylation catalysts were designed to target β,β-disubstituted β-lactones and α,α-disubstituted β-lactones as single regioisomers from 2,2-disubstituted epoxides. Improved mechanistic understanding facilitated reaction condition optimization, affording efficient, regioselective carbonylative routes to these disubstituted products. The resulting β-lactones were either ring-opened to generate a wide variety of challenging Mukaiyama aldol products or isolated for the formation of highly sought-after, biodegradable polyesters.

Regioselective carbonylation of 2,2-disubstituted epoxides

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

[Author Benefits](https://scimeetings.acs.org/?utm_source=pubs_content_marketing&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=0320_MCF_NPI_Launch_Spring_Homepage&ref=pubs_content_marketing)

[How to use SciMeetings](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMeetings-ACSSpring2020-HowToGuide_M3020-Final.pdf)

[Frequently Asked Questions](https://storage.googleapis.com/dl.morressier.com/acs/SciMtng_ACSNMSp2020_FAQ_M3120_Final.pdf)

ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.