Development of Highly Enantioselective Catalysts for Asymmetric Copolymerization of meso-Epoxides and Cyclic Anhydrides: Subtle Modification Resulting in Superior Enantioselectivity

The asymmetric alternating copolymerization of meso-epoxides with cyclic anhydrides promoted by chiral catalysts or reagents is a powerful strategy for the synthesis of optically active polyesters with main-chain chirality. Herein, we show that, in conjunction with a nucleophilic cocatalyst, enantiopure dinuclear Al(III) complexes efficiently catalyze this asymmetric copolymerization, exhibiting high activity and achieving enantioselectivities up to 99% ee under mild conditions. Copolymer enantioselectivity and catalytic activity are revealed to be strongly affected by the axial linker, chiral diamine structure, and phenolate ortho-substituents. Density functional theory calculations confirm that the reactions corresponding to ring opening at (R)-C–O and (S)-C–O bonds of the Al-coordinated meso-epoxide during copolymerization exhibit significantly different Gibbs free energies of activation (Δ‡G). Enantiopure dinuclear Al(III) complex 3 bearing a hydrogenated binaphthol linker with the matched configuration is demonstrated to be the most active and enantioselective catalyst, featuring a broad substrate scope and allowing one to obtain a wide range of isotactic polyesters with a completely alternating structure and low polydispersity. Notably, most of the produced isotactic polyesters are typical semicrystalline materials with melting temperatures between 120 and 240 °C. Additionally, the mixing of selected isotactic (R)- and (S)-polyesters in a 1:1 mass ratio afforded two crystalline stereocomplexes that exhibited enhanced thermal stability as well as new crystallization behavior and therefore significantly differed from the parent enantiopure polymers.