As the demand for polymers increases, it is becoming clear that the current methods used to produce polymers and the types of polymers manufactured are not sustainable. Currently, about 99% of plastics produced worldwide are made from petroleum sources. Thus the development of polymers from renewable resources such as biomass and carbon dioxide is increasingly attractive. This project investigates the efficacy of scandium and gallium complexes of tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) and Jacobsen's ligand (salen) in the polymerization of lactide and the copolymerization of CO2 and propylene oxide. Thus far (TPP)ScCl, (TPP)GaCl, (salen)ScCl, and (salen)GaCl have been synthesized. These compounds were synthesized from the metal chlorides and protonated ligands using standard Schlenk-line and dry box techniques. Preliminary results show that these complexes are inactive in the homopolymerizations of lactide and propylene oxide. This is likely due to the low nucleophilicity of the chloride anion, which makes it a poor initiator for ring-opening polymerizations. Currently attempts to synthesize the alkoxide derivatives of these compounds are in progress.No embarg
