Polylactide, PLA, shows considerable promise as a sustainable replacement for petrochemicals; it is produced by the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of lactide which is derived from high starch content biomass. The ROP is initiated by Lewis acidic metal alkoxide complexes, control over the rate, molecular weight and stereochemistry is important as it affects the material's properties.  Stereocontrol is particularly important as it controls the tacticity of the resulting PLA.This paper describes the synthesis, characterization and polymerization catalysis of a series of group 3 yttrium phosphasalen complexes and group 13 bis(quinolinolato)aluminium ethyl complexes. Both types of complex can yield isotactic PLA; the presentation will discuss the polymerization kinetics, control and stereocontrol. Various derivatives and the structure-activity relationships will be described and possible mechanisms for stereocontrol will be proposed.1a) Bakewell et al., Organometallics, 2012, 31, 4729-4736 b) Cao et al., Inorg. Chem., 2012, 51, 2157-2169

Bis(quinolinolato)aluminium ethyl and yttrium phosphasalen complexes: New iso-selective initiators for rac-lactide ring-opening polymerisation

245th National Meeting (2013)

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