Organomagnesium towards efficient synthesis of recyclable polymers

Recyclable polymers, such as poly(gamma-butyrolactone) (PGBL), offer a great opportunity to address the environmental issues of plastics. Herein, we presented an alternative commercial powerful organomagnesium catalysis for ring-opening polymerizations of 3,4-trans six-membered ring-fused gamma-butyrolactone (M), enantiomer (R)-M and (S)-M with high conversions (up to 89%). Di-n-butylmagnesium and n-butylethylmagnesium exhibited effective activities for all three kinds of monomers. The polymerization process of (R)-M was systematically investigated with di-n-butylmagnesium as the catalyst. Well-defined polyesters with molecular weights ranging from 4780 to 17420 g/mol were obtained. The commercial organomagnesium catalysis would broaden the applications of recyclable polymers.