Reductive Amination/Cyclization of Methyl Levulinate with Aspartic Acid: Towards Renewable Polyesters with a Pendant Lactam Unit

International audience; 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 .