Enantiomorphous catalyst

Ring-opening polymerization of racemic a-methyl-/J-propiolactone using lipase PC catalyst proceeded enantioselectively to produce an optically active (S)-enriched polymer [68]. The highest ee value of the polymer was 0.50. NMR analysis of the product showed that the stereoselectivity during the propagation resulted from the catalyst enantiomorphic-site control. 

Extensive studies of stereoselective polymerization of epoxides were carried out by Tsuruta et al.21 s. Copolymerization of a racemic mixture of propylene oxide with a diethylzinc-methanol catalyst yielded a crystalline polymer, which was resolved into optically active polymers216 217. Asymmetric selective polymerization of d-propylene oxide from a racemic mixture occurs with asymmetric catalysts such as diethyzinc- (+) bomeol218. This reaction is explained by the asymmetric adsorption of monomers onto the enantiomorphic catalyst site219. Furukawa220 compared the selectivities of asymmetric catalysts composed of diethylzinc amino acid combinations and attributed the selectivity to the bulkiness of the substituents in the amino acid. With propylene sulfide, excellent asymmetric selective polymerization was observed with a catalyst consisting of diethylzinc and a tertiary-butyl substituted a-glycol221,222. ... 

Another hypothesis on homochirality involves interaction of biomolecules with minerals, either at rock surfaces or at the sea bottom thus, adsorption processes of biomolecules at chiral mineral surfaces have been studied. Klabunovskii and Thiemann (2000) used a large selection of analytical data, provided by other authors, to study whether natural, optically active quartz could have played a role in the emergence of optical activity on the primeval Earth. Some researchers consider it possible that enantioselective adsorption by one of the quartz species (L or D) could have led to the homochirality of biomolecules. Asymmetric adsorption at enantiomor-phic quartz crystals has been detected L-quartz preferentially adsorbs L-alanine. Asymmetrical hydrogenation using d- or L-quartz as active catalysts is also possible. However, if the information in a large number of publications is averaged out, as Klabunovskii and Thiemann could show, there is no clear preference in nature for one of the two enantiomorphic quartz structures. It is possible that rhomobohedral... 

Several isospecific Ci-symmetry catalysts have also been described including (12-15). When activated with [Ph3C]+ [B(C6F5)4]-, (12) affords highly regioregular i-PP (mmmm = 95%) with the stereochemical defects predominantly being isolated rr triads, consistent with a self-correcting enantiomorphic site-control pathway. 2,73 The isospecificity was therefore explained by a mechanism... 

The polymerization of MMA has been shown to be subject to enantiomorphic site control when the Ci-symmetric a .va-lanthanocene complexes (196) and (197) are employed as initiators.463 When the (T)-neomenthyl catalyst (196) is used, highly isotactic PMMA is produced (94% mm at — 35 °C), whereas the (-)menthyl derived (197) affords syndiorich PMMA (73% rr at 25 °C). NMR statistical analysis suggests that conjugate addition of monomer competes with enolate isomerization processes, and the relative rate of the two pathways determines the tacticity. 

Site control versus chain-end control. Over the years two mechanisms have been put forward as being responsible for the stereo-control of the growing polymer chain firstly the site-control mechanism and secondly the chain-end control mechanism. In the site control mechanism the structure of the catalytic site determines the way the molecule of 1-alkene will insert (enantiomorphic site control). Obviously, the Cossee mechanism belongs to this class. As we have seen previously, propene is prochiral and a catalyst may attack either the re-face or the, v/-facc. If the catalyst itself is chiral as the one drawn in Figure 10.2, a diastereomeric complex forms and there may be a preference for the... 

Audisio studied the microtacticity of the 1,4-rrans-polypentadiene [—CH2—CH=CH—CH(CH3)—] in connection with that of the poly-(methyltetramethylene) [—CH2—CH2—CH2—CHfCHs)—] obtained from the preceding compound by reduction (109, 110), and succeeded in evaluating the distribution of the triads mm, mr, and rr. He has proposed an interpretation according to a one-parameter model based on enantiomorphic catalyst sites (111) (see Table 4, column 4, 3/ = 1). 

The probabilistic aspect of error propagation in isotactic polypropylene was treated both as a second-order Markov chain (in terms of m and r dyads) (408) and, in terms of a model of enantiomorphic catalyst sites, as asymmetric Ber-... 

The mechanical properties of PLA rely on the stereochemistry of insertion of the lactide monomer into the PLA chain, and the process can be controlled by the catalyst used. Therefore, PLAs with desired microstructures (isotactic, heterotactic, and S3mdiotactic) can be derived from the rac- and W50-Iactide depending on the stereoselectivity of the metal catalysts in the course of the polymerization (Scheme 15) [66]. Fundamentally, two different polymerization mechanisms can be distinguished (1) chain-end control (depending on stereochemistry of the monomer), and (2) enantiomorphic site control (depending on chirality of the catalyst). In reality, stereocontrolled lactide polymerization can be achieved with a catalyst containing sterically encumbered active sites however, both chain-end and site control mechanisms may contribute to the overall stereocontrol [154]. Homonuclear decoupled NMR analysis is considered to be the most conclusive characterization technique to identify the PLA tacticity [155]. Homonuclear... 

The driving force for isoselective propagation results from steric and electrostatic interactions between the substituent of the incoming monomer and the ligands of the transition metal. The chirality of the active site dictates that monomer coordinate to the transition metal vacancy primarily through one of the two enantiofaces. Actives sites XXI and XXII each yield isotactic polymer molecules through nearly exclusive coordination with the re and si monomer enantioface, respectively, or vice versa. That is, we may not know which enantio-face will coordinate with XXI and which enantioface with XXII, but it is clear that only one of the enantiofaces will coordinate with XXI while the opposite enantioface will coordinate with XXn. This is the catalyst (initiator) site control or enantiomorphic site control model for isoselective polymerization. 

The polymer stereosequence distributions obtained by NMR analysis are often analyzed by statistical propagation models to gain insight into the propagation mechanism [Bovey, 1972, 1982 Doi, 1979a,b, 1982 Ewen, 1984 Farina, 1987 Inoue et al., 1984 Le Borgne et al., 1988 Randall, 1977 Resconi et al., 2000 Shelden et al., 1965, 1969]. Propagation models exist for both catalyst (initiator) site control (also referred to as enantiomorphic site control) and polymer chain end control. The Bemoullian and Markov models describe polymerizations where stereochemistry is determined by polymer chain end control. The catalyst site control model describes polymerizations where stereochemistry is determined by the initiator. 

In a heterogeneous not optically active catalyst there is the same probability that an active center shows a given steric structure or the enantiomorphous one it follows that one half of the present active centers will cause a given configuration of monomeric units (for instance, right-handed) and the other half will cause the opposite configuration (left-handed). 

Under ordinary laboratory conditions (at lower temperatures than shown in Fig. 7.5), it is seen that only the red a-sulfur form is stable. The yellow /3-sulfur needles are the most stable phase only in a narrow temperature range around 96-120°C, but they persist as a supercooled metastable phase well below this range (surviving, for example, on a stock-room shelf for indefinite periods). Given a sample of yellow /3-sulfur, it is easy to detect the melting point near 120°C, but is far from easy to detect the enantiomorphic a/13 solid-solid conversion near 96°C, unless a nucleating crystallite or catalyst is introduced. Once produced, the /3-phase tends to persist as a supercooled (undercooled) metastable extension... 

Three stereoisomers are possible in the cholestanylindene-derived zir-conocene complexes illustrated in Scheme 67. Two are racem-like, and the other is meso-like depending on the geometry of the metallocene moiety. The stereochemistry of the reaction is controlled by both the structure of the metallocene skeleton and steroidal substituent. Polymerization of propylene with 0-C activated with MAO gave polypropylene of 240,000, about 40% mmmm approximately 70% is due to enantiomorphic site control and the rest is due to chain-end control. Use of the catalyst derived from a /3-A-B mixture produced a mixture of polymers. The a-A and a-B/MAO catalysts afforded isotactic poly-... 

A number of interesting modes of coordination are found with simple organic molecules as ligands, e.g. a crystal structure determination of the tetrameric methylzinc(II) derivative MeZn(OMe) 4684 shows the structure to be as in (101). Closely related to this is the structure of the polymerization catalyst Zn(OMe)2(EtZnOMe)6 (102).686 The centrosymmetric complex consists of two enantiomorphic distorted cubes which share a comer the zinc atoms occupy the comers of a tetrahedron and oxygen atoms the comers of an interpenetrating, but smaller, tetrahedron (Zn—O = 2.06 A). 

The steric triad distributions of polypropylene with structure (IS) are consistent with an enantiomorphic-site propagation model based on stereochemical control by the chirality of the active center on the catalyst 132,133). It should be noted that isotactic polypropylenes are formed along both propagation models, enantiomorphic-site control and chain-end control. 

Both possibilities, i.e. enantiomorphic site stereocontrol (in the case of an optically inactive catalyst it consists of a racemic mixture of enantiomorphic sites) and chain end stereocontrol, have been verified, depending on the kind of catalyst. These two essential types of stereocontrol mechanism operating in propylene polymerisation with various stereospecific Ziegler-Natta catalysts are presented in Table 3.3. 

As regards higher 7-olefins, their polymerisation with metallocene-based catalysts of class IV with Cs symmetry affords highly syndiotactic polymers as in the case of propylene [117]. This is a consequence of enantiomorphic site control over the polymerisation stereochemistry. 

It has been suggested recently [410] that, also in the case of heterogeneous isospecific Ziegler-Natta catalysts, the stereoregulation mechanism assuming a growing chain orientation is more reasonable than that predicted by the enantiomorphic site model [411,412],... 

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