TY - JOUR A1 - Kricheldorf, Hans A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - High molar mass cyclic poly(L-lactide) via ring-expansion polymerizationwith cyclic dibutyltin bisphenoxides N2 - Two new catalysts (SnNa and SnBi) were prepared from dibutyltin oxide and 2,2′-dihydroxybiphenyl or2,2′dihydroxy(1,1′-binaphtyl). These catalysts enabled rapid polymerizations of L-lactide at 160 or 180 °C in bulk, whereby almost exclusively cyclic polylactides were formed. These polymerizations were free of racemization and yielded pol(L-lactide)s having weight average molecular weights (Mw's) up to 140 000 g mol−1. The Mw's varied little with the Lac/Cat ratio as expected for a ring expansion polymerization (REP). Polymerizations performed in bulk at 140, 120 and 102 °C yielded cyclic polylactides with lower molecular weights. At 102 °C a strong predominance of even-numbered cycles was found with SnNa as catalyst. SnNa can also catalyze alcohol-initiated ROPs yielding linear poly(L-lactide) free of cyclics. KW - MALDI-TOF MS KW - Polylactide KW - Ring-opening Polymerization KW - Cyclization KW - Catalysts PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2018.05.036 SN - 0014-3057 SN - 1873-1945 VL - 105 SP - 158 EP - 166 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-45439 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kricheldorf, H. R. A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - Cyclic poly(L-lactide)s via simultaneous ROP and polycondensation (ROPPOC) catalyzed by dibutyltin phenoxides N2 - Starting from dibutyltin oxide, four catalysts were synthesized, namely the dibutyltin bisphenoxides of Phenol (SnPh), 4-chlorophenol (SnCP), 4-hydroxybenzonitrile (SnCN) and pentafluorophenol (SnOPF). With the first three catalysts polymerizations of L-lactide at 160 °C in bulk yielded large fraction of linear chains having phenylester end groups at short reaction times. At longer times the fraction of cycles considerably increased at the expense of the linear chains, when SnCN was used as catalyst. With SnOPF only cyclic polylactides were obtained at low Lac/Cat ratios (< 400) with weight average molecular weights (Mw) up to 90 000 Da, whereas for high Lac/Cat ratios mixtures of cyclic and linear chains were found. Polymerizations in solution enabled variation of the molecular weight. Polymerizations of meso-lactide at temperatures down to 60 °C mainly yielded even-numbered linear chains supporting the postulated ROPPOC mechanism. KW - Cyclization KW - MALDI-TOF MS KW - Polycondensation KW - Ring-opening Polymerization KW - Polylactide PY - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2018.10.005 SN - 0014-3057 IS - 109 SP - 360 EP - 366 PB - Elsevier AN - OPUS4-46263 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -