Highly Isoselective Ring-Opening Polymerization of rac -β-Butyrolactone: Access to Synthetic Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) with Polyolefin-like Material Properties

Bruckmoser, Jonas; Pongratz, Stefanie; Stieglitz, Lucas; Rieger, Bernhard

doi:10.1021/jacs.3c02348

Highly Isoselective Ring-Opening Polymerization of rac -β-Butyrolactone: Access to Synthetic Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) with Polyolefin-like Material Properties

We report the highly isoselective ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of racemic β-butyrolactone (β-BL) using in situ -generated catalysts based on Y[N(SiHMe 2 ) 2 ] 3 (THF) 2 and salan-type pro-ligands. The catalyst system produces isotactic poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) with record productivity (…