Remarkable effect of alkali metal on polymerization of cyclic esters catalyzed by samarium-alkali metal multinuclear alkoxide clusters

The remarkable effect of alkali metal on catalytic reactivity of samarium-alkali metal multinuclear alkoxide clusters is systematically studied. Three samarium-alkali metal multinuclear alkoxide clusters are synthesized in high yield by the reaction of anhydrous SmCl(3) with different molar ratios of alkali metal alkoxide and MOH (M = Na or K) in tetrahydrofuran (THF). These clusters were fully characterized by elemental analysis, IR, (1)H NMR and single-crystal structural analysis. These clusters exhibited good catalytic activity for the ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL), L-lactide (L-LA) and trimethylene carbonate (TMC). It is interesting to note that the catalytic activity is much influenced by the alkali metals of the clusters. For the polymerization of these cyclic esters, the catalytic activities all increase with the increase of the molar ratio of alkali metal to samarium metal.