Ring-Opening Polymerization of L-Lactide and epsilon-Caprolactone Utilizing Biocompatible Zinc Catalysts. Random Copolymerization of L-Lactide and epsilon-Caprolactone Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Polylactide and polycaprolactone were synthesized utilizing biocompatible zinc complexes as initiators at ambient temperature in "controlled"/ "living" polymerization processes. The zinc complex containing a Schiff base ligand derived from the natural amino acid phenylalanine was found to catalyze the ring-opening polymerization of l-lactide and -caprolactone in the melt at 110 C to afford a series of random copolymers. These copolymers were shown to possess monomer contents which correlated well with their composition in the monomer feed. The thermal properties of the various copolymers (Tg, Tc, and Tm) as determined by differential scanning calorimetry were found to depend strongly on the copolymers' composition. For example, the Tgs were shown to vary linearly with the molar % lactide in the copolymer over a temperature range of -67 to 60 C. 2010 American Chemical Society.

published proceedings

  • MACROMOLECULES

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Darensbourg, D. J., & Karroonnirun, O.

citation count

  • 150

complete list of authors

  • Darensbourg, Donald J||Karroonnirun, Osit

publication date

  • November 2010