Highly active organocatalyst from a trivalent phosphazenium salt for ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides enhanced by hydrogen bonding interactions

It is highly desirable to develop simple organocatalysts for the controlled ring-opening alternating copolymerization(ROAC)of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides,leading to high molecular weight polyesters.Hence,a phosphazenium salt,namely tri[tris(dimethylamino)phosphoranylidenamino]phosphonium chloride(P_(4)^(+)Cl^(-)),is developed as a catalyst for the ROAC of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides.Surprisingly,the combination of P_(4)^(+)Cl^(-)with a protonic initiator,such as 1,4-benzenedimethanol(BDM)exhibited high efficiency in the copolymerization of propylene oxide(PO)and phthalic anhydride(PA).This led to the production of polyester with an exceptional high molecular weight(M_n)of up to 126 k Da,which represented a rare example of poly(PO-alt-PA)with Mnsurpassing 100 k Da.Note that the core P atom is trivalent status and the tris[tris(dimethylamino)]phosphoranyl group will share one proton in the P_(4)^(+)Cl^(-)salt.Once combined with protonic species,the P_(4)^(+)Cl^(-)will not only serve as a proton acceptor but also as a hydrogen bonding donor for the cyclic anhydrides.Therefore,it was assumed that the P_(4)^(+)plus proton served dual role in mimic of base/urea pair to effectively catalyze ROAC,which was supported by density functional theory(DFT)calculations.

Potassium Acetate/18-Crown-6 Pair:Robust and Versatile Catalyst for Synthesis of Polyols from Ring-Opening Copolymerization of Epoxides and Cyclic Anhydrides

Efficient synthesis of polyester polyols with tunable molecular weight and microstructures from cyclic anhydride/epoxide mixtures by taking advantage of chain transfer reaction remains a great challenge,because most of the catalysts exhibit poor tolerance to chain transfer agent(CTA).In this contribution,we demonstrated that potassium acetate(KOAc)and 18-crown-6(18-C-6)combination has great potential in the synthesis of diverse polyester polyols with controllable molecular weight and high-end group fidelity.Com-pared with KOAc,KOAc/18-C-6 pair could induce a much faster chain transfer between the active and dormant chains,and thus produce polyester polyols with narrow and monomodal distribution.In addition,polyester polyols could be efficiently prepared in laboratory by using commercially available cyclic anhydride without further purification(containing about 2%diacid residual as CTA)with an extremely low catalyst loading([catalyst pair]:[anhydride]:[epoxide]=1:50000:250000,[catalyst pair]=0.0004 mol%).KOAc/18-C-6 could also promote the self-switchable copolymerization of cyclic anhydride/epoxide/cyclic ester mixtures.Ring-opening copolymerization of cyclic ester was initiated automatically after the full conversion of cyclic anhydride,finally producing polyester polyols with ABA-type block structure.

A family of novel bifunctional organocatalysts:Highly enantioselective alcoholysis of meso cyclic anhydrides and its application for synthesis of the key intermediate of P2X_7 receptor antagonists

A family of novel squaramides/sulfamides based on 1,2-alkamine was developed as chiral bifunctional catalysts to promote the asymmetric alcoholysis of meso cyclic anhydrides. The hemiesters were obtained in high yield with up to 93% ee. The usefulness of this methodology was demonstrated in the asymmetric synthesis of the key intermediate of P2X7 receptor antagonists.

Asymmetric catalytic anhydride openings via carbon-based nucleophiles

The asymmetric desymmetrization of cyclic anhydrides via the addition of carbon-based nucleophiles has been the focus of considerable levels of interest because it leads to optically active products. Over the past 20 years, a variety of different catalytic asymmetric alkylation reactions have been developed for the desymmetrization of cyclic anhydrides using different metal reagents as nucleophiles and using chiral ligands. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of significant developments in this field. ~ 2013 Fen-Er Chen. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society. All rights reserved.