Highly active, productive, and syndiospecific yttrium initiators for the polymerization of racemic β-butyrolactone

Abstract

(Chemical Equation Presented) Alternate tacticities: The ring-opening polymerization of rac-β-butyrolactone (rac-BBL) using a six-coordinate yttrium complex bearing a dianionic amine-bis(phenolate) ligand as initiator proceeds readily at room temperature to give the corresponding poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) with up to 94% syndiotacticity and narrow molecular-weight distributions (see scheme). © 2006 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.