Ligand Design in Enantioselective Ring-opening Polymerization of Lactide

Ligand Design in Enantioselective Ring-opening Polymerization of Lactide 

Kimberly M. Osten, Dinesh C. Aluthge, and Parisa Mehrkhodavandi 

Department of Chemistry, The University of British Columbia, 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T IZl 

The development of commercially useful polymers in the early 20th century ushered in an era where mass-produced, organo-polymeric materials have become a ubiquitous part of daily life. Sixty years after the Nobel prize-winning discovery by Ziegler and Natta, the scale of worldwide polyolefin production is massive. The current estimated aimual global production of polyolefins is over 150 million metric tons. However, the inherent chemical inertness of these substances causes them to persist in the environment centuries after they have been discarded. The detrimental environmental impact of a man-made waste problem of this scale has generated an interest in commercially viable, biodegradable alternatives.  

The ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of cyclic esters can be used to generate biodegradable polyesters such as poly(caprolactone) (PCL), poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) in a controlled fashion. Of these polyesters PLA is the most widely used, for applications ranging from food packaging to automotive parts.  

---

Ligand Design in Enantioselective Ring-opening Polymerization of Lactide 285 10.1.3.8 Salen-type ligands... 

---