Enolic Schiff Base Zinc Amide Complexes: Highly Active Catalysts for Ring-Opening Polymerization of Lactide and ε-Caprolactone

A series of zinc silylamido complexes based upon NNO tridentate enolic Schiff base framework have been synthesized and characterized. These complexes were tested for the ring opening polymerization of lactide and ε-caprolactone, exhibiting notably high activity at ambient temperature. The influence of imine bridge length and substituents of diketone over the course of polymerization was investigated in details. Remarkably, 4a was confirmed to be a rare example of exceedingly active and robust zinc catalysts, achieving major transformation of lactide under extremely low loading (0.025 mol%) within 18 min. The influence of various monomers as well as the polymerization mechanism have also been discussed.