My research focuses on the development of sustainable and non-toxic main-group catalysts for polymerization of lactide, and copolymerization of epoxides and anhydrides. Both processes are promising directions in the field of polymerization. Lactide is a renewable starting material for synthesis of biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) which can replace non-biodegradable petroleum-based polymers. Polylactide have many applications as a recyclable plastic in medicine, packaging, and fiber technology. There is also a growing interest in copolymerization of epoxide and anhydride as a promising alternative route to the synthesis of polyesters. Copolymerization of epoxides and anhydride provide structurally diverse polyesters due to the availability of large library of epoxides and anhydrides. Properties of resulting polyester can be modulated as a function of different epoxides and anhydrides. Both processes rely on a Lewis acid catalysis in which the monomer inserts into a metal-OR bond. Therefore, main group alkoxide complexes are typically used as pre-catalysts for lactide polymerization and copolymerization of epoxides and anhydrides. I will describe synthesis of novel Mg(OR)2(THF)2 (OR = OCtBu2Ph) complexes, that contain a combination of a non-toxic metal and ligand; the ligand can be synthesized in one simple step from readily available starting materials. Mg(OR)2(THF)2 exhibits very high activity in lactide polymerization, as well as novel reactivity in the copolymerization of several different epoxides with anhydrides. Synthetic, structural and reactivity studies will be presented and discussed.

Magnesium alkoxide complexes for ring opening polymerization of lactide and copolymerization of epoxide-anhydride

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

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