title: Tandem synthesis of alternating polyesters from renewable resources.
abstract: The vast majority of commodity materials are obtained from petrochemical feedstocks. These resources will plausibly be depleted within the next 100 years, and the peak in global oil production is estimated to occur within the next few decades. In this regard, biomass represents an abundant carbon-neutral renewable resource for the production of polymers. Here we report a new strategy, based on tandem catalysis, to obtain renewable materials. Commercially available complexes are found to be efficient catalysts for alternating polyesters from the cyclization of dicarboxylic acids followed by alternating copolymerization of the resulting anhydrides with epoxides. This operationally simple method is an attractive strategy for the production of new biodegradable polyesters.
authors.affiliation: Chimie ParisTech, UMR CNRS 7223, 11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Carine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Montigny
authors.forename: Christophe M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Thomas
mesh_terms: D000812:Anhydrides / Q000737:chemistry; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018533:Biomass; D002384:Catalysis; D003500:Cyclization; D003998:Dicarboxylic Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D004852:Epoxy Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D055772:Green Chemistry Technology; D011091:Polyesters / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D058105:Polymerization
chemical_list: D000812:Anhydrides; D003998:Dicarboxylic Acids; D004852:Epoxy Compounds; D011091:Polyesters