Crystalline CO2-based polycarbonates prepared from racemic catalyst through intramolecularly interlocked assembly

The crystalline stereocomplexed polycarbonates can be prepared by mixing enantiopure polymers with opposite configuration, which derived from the asymmetric copolymerization with CO2 using enantiopure catalyst or/and chiral epoxides. Herein, we develop a powerful strategy for producing crystalline intramolecular stereocomplexed polycarbonates from racemic catalysts, which possess similar thermal stability and crystalline behaviour in comparison with the stereocomplexes by mixing opposite enantiopure polymers. Living polymer chains shuttle between catalyst molecules with different configurations to produce diastereomeric active species which is suggested to be responsible for the formation of isotactic multiblock polycarbonates in racemic bimetallic cobalt catalyst-mediated stereoselective copolymerization of CO2 and meso-epoxides. Solid-state NMR spectroscopy study suggests that the interaction in the carbonyl and methine regions is responsible for the strong crystallization capacity and compact package structure in the crystalline polycarbonates.