Zirconium and hafnium complexes bearing pyrrolidine derived salalen-type {ONNO} ligands and their application for ring-opening polymerization of lactides.

The reactions of pyrrolidine derived salalen-type {ONNO} ligands (S)-L1-3-H-2 with 1 equiv. M((OPr)-Pr-i)(4)((HOPr)-Pr-i) (M = Zr or Hf) in diethyl ether yielded complexes [L1-3M(OiPr)(2)] (L = L-1, M = Zr (1); L = L-2, M = Zr (2), Hf (3); L = L-3, M = Zr (4), Hf (5)). All of these complexes were well characterized by NMR spectroscopy, elemental analyses and single-crystal X-ray analysis in the case of complexes 1 and 3-5. X-ray structural determination revealed that these complexes were analogous mononuclear species and had a similar structure in which the metal centers were six-coordinated to two oxygen atoms and two nitrogen atoms of one ligand and two oxygen atoms of two isopropoxy groups. All of these complexes efficiently initialized the ring-opening polymerization of lactides to afford polymers with controlled molecular weight and narrow polydispersity. Furthermore, the ring-opening polymerization of rac-lactide catalyzed by complexes 1-5 afforded isotactic-enriched polymers in solution (P-m = 0.74-0.80) and under melt conditions (P-m = 0.63-0.72).