Dimethylaluminium aldiminophenolates: synthesis, characterization and ring-opening polymerization behavior towards lactidesCCDC 885173-885175 for C1, C6, and C8. For crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c2dt31215h

• Main Authors: Zhang, Wenjuan, Wang, Youhong, Sun, Wen-Hua, Wang, Lin, Redshaw, Carl
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/c2dt31215h

The stoichiometric reaction of the salicylaldimine derivatives ( L1-L12 ) with trimethylaluminium afforded the corresponding dimethylaluminium aldiminophenolates ( C1-C12 ), which were fully characterized by NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. The molecular structures of the representative complexes C1 , C6 , and C8 were determined by the single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which revealed distorted tetrahedral geometry at aluminium. Activation of the dimethylaluminium aldiminophenolates for the ring-opening polymerization required one equivalent of BnOH. On the basis of the polymerization results for l -lactide, d -lactide or rac -lactide, higher efficiency was observed for the ROP of d -lactide, and the nature of the ligands present significantly affected the observed catalytic activities and the properties of the resultant polylactides. A series of dimethylaluminium aldiminophenolates ( C1-C12 ) was synthesized and characterized. In presence of BnOH, all aluminium complexes exhibited high efficiency toward the ROP of lactides.