Special Catalysts for Polymerizations of Lactones

Some lactones can polymerize in the presence of compounds like alcohols, amines, and carboxylic acids without additional catalysts. The reactions, however, are slow and yield only low molecular weight polymers [95]. Exception is polymerizations of pivalolactone in the presence of cyclic amines that yield high molecular weight polyesters at high conversion [111]. The initiating steps result from formations of adducts, amine-pivalate betaines:

The above reaction appears to be restricted to highly strained lactones and may not work with larger lactones [95], For instance, when polymerization of d-Valero lactone is initiated with ethanolamine at temperatures up to 200C there is initially a rapid reaction between the amine group and the monomer:

The subsequent reactions, however, are slow:

It was suggested that initiators, like dibutyl zinc, that lack active hydrogens should be placed into a special category [96]. They can initiate polymerizations of some lactones. One of them is e caprolactone. Polymers form that are inversely proportional in molecular weights to the catalyst concentrations [112]. The same is true of stannic tetra acrylate. High molecular weight poly(e caprolactone), as high as 100,000 forms. Addition of compounds that may serve as source of active hydrogens is not necessary [95]. This group of initiators also includes dimethylcadmium, methyl magnesium bromide, and a few others that are effective in polymerizations of d-valerolactone, e-caprolactone, and their alkyl substituted derivatives. The polymers that form are high in molecular weight, some as high as 250,000 [113]. Another group consists of zinc and lead salts, stannous esters, phosphines, and alkyl titanates. This group does require additions of compounds with active hydrogens. Such additives can be polyols, polyamines, or carboxylic acid compounds [95]. Molecular weight control is difficult with the catalysts belonging to the first group. This second group, on the other hand, not only allows control over the molecular weights, but also over the nature of the end groups [95]. Weymouth and coworkers carried out kinetic and mechanistic studies of heterocyclic carbene mediated zwitterionic polymerization of cyclic esters [96]. Based on their results they proposed the following ring-opening mechanism:

From the kinetic studies they were able to conclude that in the heterocyclic carbene initiated polymerization of lactide, the rate of initiation is slower than the rate of propagation. Also, the rate of propagation is much faster than chain termination via cyclization.

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