Duan Ranlong

Organometallic catalysts for the ring-opening polymerization of lactide

As a novel type of biomaterials, polylactide (PLA) is an important alternative biodegradable material to traditional fossil-based plastics and shows wide applications in green plastics and biomedical field. PLA is commonly synthesized by the ring-opening polymerization of lactide. In this contribution, the discovery of organometallic catalysts for the ring-opening polymerization of lactide is briefly reviewed based on our group’s work. Specifically, the organic compounds with different substitution groups, chirality and metal species are discussed for mononuclear and multinuclear catalysts, and the cooperation effects on the steric hindrance and mutual electron are focused for the multinuclear catalysts.