TY - JOUR

T1 - Enzymatic Ring-Opening Polymerization of Lactones

T2 - Traditional Approaches and Alternative Strategies

AU - Engel, Jennifer

AU - Cordellier, Alex

AU - Huang, Lei

AU - Kara, Selin

N1 - Funding Information: J.E., L.H. and S.K. thank to Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) for the financial support (grant no AOBJ 650427 (KA 4399/1-1) and grant no AOBJ 655719 (KA 4399/1-1)). A.C. and S.K. gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Actions (grant no 764920).

PY - 2019/10/22

Y1 - 2019/10/22

N2 - Biodegradable polymers such as polylactides and other polylactones and their synthesis gain progressively importance. Enzymatic ring-opening polymerization (eROP) is the next step sustainable synthesis of polyesters, also suitable for biomedical applications due to high selectivity and lack of toxic agents. The possibility for applying diverse reaction media ranging from traditional bulk and organic media to greener alternatives such as aqueous media, ionic liquids, and supercritical fluids may allow designing alternative non-conventional processes with less environmental footprint. Target success criteria such as high molecular weight and uniformity of polymers, and conversion of monomers have to be carefully evaluated in these diverse media. Herein we discuss the influence of different reaction media and conditions such as water content, temperature and time on the polymer sizes achieved in eROPs and various approaches to improve the molecular weight and uniformity of polymers.

AB - Biodegradable polymers such as polylactides and other polylactones and their synthesis gain progressively importance. Enzymatic ring-opening polymerization (eROP) is the next step sustainable synthesis of polyesters, also suitable for biomedical applications due to high selectivity and lack of toxic agents. The possibility for applying diverse reaction media ranging from traditional bulk and organic media to greener alternatives such as aqueous media, ionic liquids, and supercritical fluids may allow designing alternative non-conventional processes with less environmental footprint. Target success criteria such as high molecular weight and uniformity of polymers, and conversion of monomers have to be carefully evaluated in these diverse media. Herein we discuss the influence of different reaction media and conditions such as water content, temperature and time on the polymer sizes achieved in eROPs and various approaches to improve the molecular weight and uniformity of polymers.

KW - Enzymatic polymerizations

KW - Enzymatic polymerizations in aqueous media

KW - Enzymatic polymerizations in organic media

KW - Ring opening polymerization

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073689682&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/cctc.201900976

DO - 10.1002/cctc.201900976

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85073689682

VL - 11

SP - 4983

EP - 4997

JO - CHEMCATCHEM

JF - CHEMCATCHEM

SN - 1867-3880

IS - 20

ER -