Mechanistic Investigations of the Stereoselective Rare Earth Metal‐Mediated Ring‐Opening Polymerization of β‐Butyrolactone

Poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is produced by numerous bacteria as carbon and energy reserve storage material. Whereas nature only produces PHB in its strictly isotactic ( R ) form, homogeneous catalysis, when starting from racemic ( rac ) β‐butyrolactone (BL) as monomer, can in fact produce a wid…