Synthesis and structures of calcium and strontium 2,4-di-tert-butylphenolates and their reactivity towards the amine co-initiated ring-opening polymerisation of rac-lactide.

Calcium and strontium metals react with Hg(C6F5)2 and 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol (H-DBP) in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) to give [Ca(DBP)2(THF)4] (1), [Ca2(DBP)4(DME)4(µ-DME)] (2), [Sr3(µ-DBP)6(THF)6] (3), and [Sr2(DBP)(µ-DBP)3(DME)3] (4). Compound 1 is a six coordinate trans-octahedral monomer, whereas in binuclear 2 two seven-coordinate Ca centres are bridged by a DME ligand. In 3 a central Sr is connected by three bridging DBP groups to each of two terminal Sr(THF)3 moieties, all metal atoms being six coordinate. Compound 4 has one six- and one seven-coordinate Sr, bridged by three DBP ligands, the former Sr also having a terminal DBP and a bidentate DME ligand and the latter two DME ligands. Complexes 2 and 4 act as ring-opening polymerisation (ROP) catalysts for the benzyl alcohol or benzylamine co-initiated ROP rac-lactide forming atactic alcohol- or amine-terminated polylactide H-[PLA]-XBn (X = O or NH) with reasonable control of molecular weight via an activated monomer propagation mechanism. Kinetic studies for BnNH2 found the unusual rate expression -d[LA]/dt = k(p(Ae))[2 or 4]0[rac-LA](2)[BnNH2]0(2.5) (k(p(Ca)) ≈ 1.7 ×k(p(Sr))). Preliminary studies suggest that [Y(DBP)3(THF)2] also catalyses amine or alcohol co-initiated ROP by an activated monomer mechanism without loss of a phenoxide ligand.

Low-coordinate rare-earth complexes of the asymmetric 2,4-di-tert-butylphenolate ligand prepared by redox transmetallation/protolysis reactions, and their reactivity towards ring-opening polymerisation.

New trivalent lanthanoid aryloxide complexes have been prepared by redox transmetallation/protolysis (rtp) reactions using 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol (dbpH). Mononuclear octahedral complexes from tetrahydrofuran (thf) were of the type [Ln(dbp)(3)(thf)(3)] (Ln = La (1), Pr (2), Nd (3), Gd (4), Er (5)). The lanthanoid contraction results in the rather subtle change in stereochemistry from meridional (La, Pr, Nd, Gd) to facial (Er). An analogous reaction with neodymium in dimethoxyethane (dme), resulted in the isolation of the seven coordinate [Nd(dbp)(3)(dme)(2)] (6), and this is comparable with the thf complexes in terms of steric crowding. Dinuclear complexes of the type [Ln(2)(dbp)(6)(thf)(2)], (Ln = Nd (7), Er (8)) were obtained when 1 and 5 were recrystallised from toluene. These dimeric complexes contain two bridging and four terminal phenolates, as well as a single coordinated molecule of thf at each metal. A similar structural motif was observed for the products when the reaction was performed in diethyl ether, and in the absence of a solvent, yielding [Nd(2)(dbp)(6)(Et(2)O)(2)] (9) and [Nd(2)(dbp)(6)(dbpH)(2)] (10) respectively. Complexes 3 and 4 alone were efficient but poorly-controlled initiators for the ROP of rac-lactide, but with an excess of BnOH as a co-initiator they showed features consistent with immortal polymerisation. Use of BnNH(2) led to well-controlled, amine-initiated immortal ROP of rac-lactide, only the second report of this type of process for a group 3 or lanthanoid system.