Enzyme-catalyzed synthesis of malonate polyesters and their use as metal chelating materials

• Published in: Green Chemistry
• Main Authors: Byrne, Fergal P., Assemat, Jamie M. Z., Stanford, Amy E., Farmer, Thomas J., Comerford, James W., Pellis, Alessandro
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021
• Subjects: Chemistry; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8293702/; https://doi.org/10.1039/d1gc01783g

Following the environmental problems caused by non-degradable plastics there is a need to synthesise greener and more sustainable polymers. In this work we describe, for the first time, the facile enzyme-catalysed synthesis of linear polyesters using dimethyl malonate as the diester. These polymers, containing a different aliphatic diol component (C(4), C(6) or C(8)), were synthesised in solventless conditions using immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B as the biocatalyst. The potential of enzymes for catalysing this reaction is compared with the unsuccessful antimony- and titanium-catalysed synthesis (T > 150 °C). The application of the synthesized polymers as effective metal chelators in biphasic, green solvent systems was also described, together with the characterisation of the synthesised materials.