Copolymerization of epoxides with cyclic anhydrides catalyzed by dinuclear cobalt complexes

The alternating copolymerization of epoxides with cyclic anhydrides (CAs) is a highly diverse synthetic method for polyesters as the polymers’ architectures and properties can be easily controlled depending on the combination of two monomers. Thus, a variety of catalyst designs has been reported to prepare the desired copolymers efficiently. We herein report dinuclear cobalt–salen complexes with a benzene ring as a linker and their activities in copolymerization reactions. The dinuclear cobalt complexes showed a higher catalytic activity for the copolymerization of propylene oxide with phthalic anhydride than the corresponding mononuclear cobalt–salen complex and achieved one of the highest turnover frequencies ever reported. A variety of epoxides and CAs were also found to be copolymerized successfully by the dinuclear cobalt complex with a high catalytic activity.