Aluminium salophen and salen initiators in the ring-opening polymerisation of rac-lactide and rac-β-butyrolactone: electronic effects on stereoselectivity and polymerisation rates

Three aluminium salophen and two aluminium salen complexes were synthesised, characterised and screened in the ring-opening polymerisation (ROP) of rac-lactide and rac-β-butyrolactone. The focus was on controlling the apparent polymerisation rate (k p) and stereoselectivity of poly(lactic acid) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) by modulating the electron density at the aluminium centre or by switching from an alkyl backbone (salen complex) to an aryl backbone (salophen complex). The salen complexes generally showed higher k p as well as isoselectivity compared to the salophen complexes. For instance, salophen and salen complexes biased the microstructure of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) towards syndiotacticity and isotacticity, respectively. Electron-withdrawing or electron-donating backbones on a salophen complex tuned k p, with electron-donating backbones offering faster k p.