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. 2016 Mar 18;55(13):4188-93.
doi: 10.1002/anie.201601092. Epub 2016 Mar 1.

Towards Truly Sustainable Polymers: A Metal-Free Recyclable Polyester from Biorenewable Non-Strained γ-Butyrolactone

Miao Hong  1 , Eugene Y-X Chen  2
Affiliations

Towards Truly Sustainable Polymers: A Metal-Free Recyclable Polyester from Biorenewable Non-Strained γ-Butyrolactone

Miao Hong et al. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. .

Abstract

The first effective organopolymerization of the biorenewable "non-polymerizable" γ-butyrolactone (γ-BL) to a high-molecular-weight metal-free recyclable polyester is reported. The superbase tert-Bu-P4 is found to directly initiate this polymerization through deprotonation of γ-BL to generate reactive enolate species. When combined with a suitable alcohol, the tert-Bu-P4 -based system rapidly converts γ-BL into polyesters with high monomer conversions (up to 90 %), high molecular weights (Mn up to 26.7 kg mol(-1) ), and complete recyclability (quantitative γ-BL recovery).

Keywords: organopolymerization; polyesters; recyclability; superbases; sustainable polymers.

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