Copolymerizations of ω-Pentadecalactone and Trimethylene Carbonate by Chemical and Lipase Catalysis

Abstract

Copolymerizations of ω-pentadecalactone (PDL) with trimethylene carbonate (TMC) were studied using chemical and enzyme catalysts. By using stannous octanoate, methylaluminoxane (MAO), or aluminum isopropoxide, copolymerizations of PDL with TMC with 1:1 feed ratio resulted in either homo-polyTMC or PDL/TMC block copolymers. These catalysts polymerize TMC more rapidly than PDL. A copolymerization catalyzed by MAO gave poly(TMC-co-16 mol % PDL) with Mn 26.4 × 103g/mol and randomness numder (B) about 1.1. The sodium ethoxide-catalyzed copolymerization led to products with low Mn (3) but nearly random sequence distribution. The copolymerization of PDL with TMC was also studied by using lipase catalysts. Of the six lipases evaluated for PDL/TMC copolymerizations in toluene at 70 °C, an immobilized form of lipase B from Candida antarctica (Novozyme-435) was preferred. Changing the PDL/TMC comonomer feed ratio from 1:10 to 10:1 (mol/mol) provided copolymers that ranged in Mn and PDL mol % from 7.3 × 103 to 25.2 × 103 and 28 to 88, respectively. In contrast to the chemical catalyst systems, Novozyme-435 catalysis showed that PDL was consumed more rapidly than TMC. Also, in contrast to most of the chemical catalysts, 1H and 13C NMR analyses showed that the copolymers from Novozyme-435 catalysis were able to give a random distribution of the repeat units at extended reaction times. Furthermore, in contrast to TMC polymerization in the presence of preformed polyPDL with MAO, Novozyme-435 catalyzed polymerization led to random copolymers