New paper in the frame of the ALPO Interreg project

Just accepted in ChemSusChem.

Environmental regulation and fossil resources depletion boost the search for new polymeric materials produced from biomass.

Here, we report the synthesis of a novel diester bearing a pendant lactam unit from methyl levulinate and aspartic acid. The palladiumcatalyzed reductive amination/cyclization sequence was carefully optimized to afford the diacid with high yield (>95 %).

In a second step, the compound was esterified to give the corresponding diester. The latter monomer was copolymerized with α-ω linear diols yielding polyesters with molecular weights up to 20.5 kg.mol-1 .