The mechanism of ring‐opening polymerization of L‐lactide by ICl3 catalysts: Halogen bond catalysis or participating in reactions?

The mechanism of ring‐opening polymerization of L‐lactide by iodine trichloride (ICl3) catalyst has been explored by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations and three catalytic pathways were proposed. The first and second pathways belong to the halogen bond catalysis, and the third pathway involves the ICl3 catalysts participating in reactions. When the carbonyl group was maintained involved in the reaction and activated catalytically by the halogen bond, there are two possible pathways. The first pathway involves only one transition state, and the second pathway requires two transition states. There is another pathway in which ICl3 directly participates in the reaction, it is named the third pathway. Two different transition states of the four‐membered rings are generated successively, the transfer of I─O bonds determined the progress of the reaction. Theoretical calculations in this work provide the most basic understanding of ring‐opening polymerization of L‐lactide by ICl3 catalysts. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The mechanism of ring‐opening polymerization of L‐lactide by iodine trichloride (ICl3) catalyst has been explored by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Three catalytic pathways were proposed in the study.