Abstract: The invention relates to a method for manufacturing polylactide, comprising the steps of mixing lactide and a metal-coordination compound as polymerization catalyst to obtain a reaction mixture, polymerizing the lactide in liquid phase at a temperature of at least 150° C. to form polylactide in liquid phase and allowing the polylactide to solidify, characterized in that the polymerization catalyst comprises a metal-ligand coordination compound whereby the parent ligand answers the formula (I), whereby R represents an H atom, an aliphatic group, a halide atom or a nitro group and the metal is at least one of Zr and Hf. The invented catalysts show kinetics which is comparable to the kinetics of the known Sn-octoate catalyst.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for manufacturing polylactide, comprising the steps of mixing lactide and a metal-coordination compound as polymerization catalyst to obtain a reaction mixture, polymerizing the lactide in liquid phase at a temperature of at least 150° C. to form polylactide in liquid phase and allowing the polylactide to solidify, characterized in that the polymerization catalyst comprises a metal-ligand coordination compound whereby the parent ligand answers the formula (I), whereby R represents an H atom, an aliphatic group, a halide atom or a nitro group and the metal is at least one of Zr and Hf. The invented catalysts show kinetics which is comparable to the kinetics of the known Sn-octoate catalyst.