A joint experimental/theoretical investigation of the MMA polymerization initiated by yttrium phenoxyamine complexes.

A joint experimental/theoretical study has been carried out on the putative MMA polymerization catalyzed by an yttrium isopropyloxide complex. Despite its high activity in lactone polymerization, this catalyst is found to be unreactive on methyl methacrylate (MMA) polymerization. This surprising result is rationalized using a computational approach at the DFT level. Indeed, the endothermicity of the initiation step explains this lack of reactivity. The theoretical proposal of yttrium amido complexes as catalysts allows overcoming this initiation problem.