Polymerizations of methyl methacrylate and rac-lactide by zinc(II) precatalyst containing N-substituted 2-iminomethylpyridine and 2-iminomethylquinoline

The reaction of [ZnCl₂] with N-cyclopentyl-1-(quinolin-2-yl)methanimine (L_A), N-cyclohexyl-1-(quinolin-2-yl)methanimine (L_B), N-cyclohexyl-1-(pyridin-2-yl)methanimine (L_C), 2,6-diethyl-N-(pyridin-2-ylmethylene)aniline (L_D), N-cyclopentyl-1-(pyridin-2-yl)methanimine (L_E), and N-phenyl-(pyridin-2-yl)methanimine (L_F) in ethanol produced the bidentate [(NN′)ZnCl₂] complexes, [L_AZnCl₂], [L_BZnCl₂], [L_CZnCl₂], [L_DZnCl₂], [L_EZnCl₂] and [L_FZnCl₂], respectively. The molecular structures revealed that the zinc in [L_nZnCl₂] (L_n = L_A − L_D) showed a distorted tetrahedral geometry involving two nitrogens of N,N’-bidentate ligands and two chloride ligands. Most of these initiators were effective for polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and polymerization of rac-lactide (rac-LA). [L_CZnCl₂] (with N-cyclohexyl substituted at imine-pyridine moiety) exhibited the highest catalytic activity for MMA polymerization in the presence of modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO) with an activity of 3.33 × 10⁴ g PMMA/mol·Zn·h at 60 °C, giving moderate syndiotactic poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) with high molecular weight (9.62 × 10⁵ g/mol). The dimethyl derivatives [L_nZnMe₂] (L_n = L_A − L_F), generated in situ, polymerized rac-LA with moderate activity and yielded a polylactide (PLA) with good number-average molecular weights and narrower polydispersity indices (PDIs). [L_AZnMe₂] effectively initiates the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of rac-LA to attain heterotactic PLA (P_r = 0.91).