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Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metal Complexes as Versatile Catalysts for Ring‐Opening Polymerization of Cyclic Esters
Author(s) -
Bhattacharjee Jayeeta,
Sarkar Alok,
Panda Tarun K.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the chemical record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1528-0691
pISSN - 1527-8999
DOI - 10.1002/tcr.202100148
Subject(s) - polyester , ring opening polymerization , polymerization , biocompatibility , catalysis , monomer , biodegradation , polymer chemistry , lactic acid , materials science , alkali metal , organic chemistry , lactide , chemistry , polymer , genetics , biology , bacteria
Biodegradable polyesters such as poly(ϵ‐caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) have been considered for use in several areas, such as drug delivery devices, sutures, tissue engineering, and GBR membranes, due to its bio‐renewability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Several synthetic techniques for the preparation of polyesters have been reported in the literature, amongst which the ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of cyclic esters is the most efficient. A convenient approach to access iso‐selective PLAs is polymerization of racemic lactide ( rac ‐LA), which shows excellent stereoregularity without the need for costly chiral auxiliaries or ligands. In this personal account, we review a series of methods that have been practiced to the synthesis of biodegradable polyesters from various cyclic monomers using alkali and alkaline earth metal complexes as efficient catalysts.