scholarly journals Poly(lactic Acid): A Versatile Biobased Polymer for the Future with Multifunctional Properties—From Monomer Synthesis, Polymerization Techniques and Molecular Weight Increase to PLA Applications

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1822
Author(s):  
Evangelia Balla ◽  
Vasileios Daniilidis ◽  
Georgia Karlioti ◽  
Theocharis Kalamas ◽  
Myrika Stefanidou ◽  
...  

Environmental problems, such as global warming and plastic pollution have forced researchers to investigate alternatives for conventional plastics. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA), one of the well-known eco-friendly biodegradables and biobased polyesters, has been studied extensively and is considered to be a promising substitute to petroleum-based polymers. This review gives an inclusive overview of the current research of lactic acid and lactide dimer techniques along with the production of PLA from its monomers. Melt polycondensation as well as ring opening polymerization techniques are discussed, and the effect of various catalysts and polymerization conditions is thoroughly presented. Reaction mechanisms are also reviewed. However, due to the competitive decomposition reactions, in the most cases low or medium molecular weight (MW) of PLA, not exceeding 20,000–50,000 g/mol, are prepared. For this reason, additional procedures such as solid state polycondensation (SSP) and chain extension (CE) reaching MW ranging from 80,000 up to 250,000 g/mol are extensively investigated here. Lastly, numerous practical applications of PLA in various fields of industry, technical challenges and limitations of PLA use as well as its future perspectives are also reported in this review.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenguang Liu ◽  
Yuliang Jia ◽  
Aihua He

High molecular weight poly (lactic acid) (PLA) was obtained by chain extending with hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI). The influences of the amount of chain extender, reaction time, and molecular weight changes of prepolymers on the poly(lactic acid) were investigated. PLA prepolymer with a viscosity, average molecular weight (Mη) of 2 × 104 g/mol was synthesized froml-lactide using stannous octoate as the catalyst. After 20 min of chain extension at 175°C, the resulting polymer hadMwof 20.3 × 104 g/mol andMnof 10.5 × 104 g/mol. Both FT-IR and1H-NMR verified that the structure of PLA did not change either before chain extending or after. The optically active characterized that the chain extending-product was left handed. DSC and XRD results showed that both theTgand the crystallinity of PLA were lowered by chain-extension reaction. The crystalline transformation happened in PLA after chain extending, crystallineα′form toαform.


2013 ◽  
Vol 747 ◽  
pp. 148-152
Author(s):  
Chaichana Piyamawadee ◽  
Duangdao Aht-Ong

High molecular weight PLA was successfully synthesized by chain extension reaction of hydroxylated prepolymer using succinic anhydride as a chain extender. Hydroxylated prepolymer was prepared by direct condensation polymerization of L-lactic acid in the presence of 1,4-butanediol. Various molar ratios between hydroxylated prepolymer and succinic anhydride (i.e, 1:1, 1:2, 1:3) were investigated. The results showed that succinic anhydride can help increasing molecular weight of hydroxylated prepolymer approximately up to 47% as characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) technique. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) was used to investigate structure of chain-extended PLA. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were used to examine thermal properties while the crystallinity was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD).


2012 ◽  
Vol 476-478 ◽  
pp. 2067-2070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao Zhang ◽  
Guo Dong Fan ◽  
Hai Yan Yang

Poly(lactic acid)(PLA)was end-capped by isophorone diisocyanate(IPDI) to get PLA-IPDI under the condition of temperature of 176°C and pressure of 0.090 MPa for 13 mins, and then the PLA-IPDI was chain-extended with different molecular weights polyethylene glycol (PEG)-400, PEG-600, PEG-800, PEG-4000 and PEG-6000 to produce a series of block copolymer PLA-IPDI-PEGs. when n(–OH)/n(–NCO)=1.5:1, the molecular weight of PLA-IPDI is maximum. All the copolymer PLA-IPDI-PEGs were characterized by GPC, FTIR, DSC and contact angle testing. The results show that the polymeric degree of PLA-IPDI-PEG-800 is the best and its molecular weight is the biggest. Tg of PLA-IPDI-PEG-800 is the lowest and its hydrophilicity is better than the others modification PLA-IPD-PEGs and pure PLA.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alena Pavelková ◽  
Pavel Kucharczyk ◽  
Zdenka Kuceková ◽  
Jiří Zedník ◽  
Vladimír Sedlařík

Poly(lactic acid)-based polymers are highly suitable for temporary biomedical applications, such as tissue support or drug delivery systems. Copolymers of different molecular weight based on poly(lactic acid) and poly(ethylene glycol) were prepared by polycondensation, catalysed by hydrochloric acid. A chain-extension reaction with l-lysine ethyl ester diisocyanate was employed afterwards to obtain polyester urethanes with enhanced properties. The GPC results showed that the molecular weights of the products reached about 50,000 g·mol−1 and the hydrolytic progress was rapid in the first 2 weeks; the drop in Mn equalled approximately 70%. Additionally, elemental analysis of the buffer medium proved that hydrolytic degradation was more rapid in the first stage. Tensile-strength testing revealed that ductility increased alongside reduced molecular weight of poly(ethylene glycol), also suggesting that polymer branching occurred due to side reactions of isocyanate. Based on the envisaged biomedical applications for these polymers, cytotoxicity tests were carried out and the cytotoxic effect was only moderate in the case of 100% polymer extract prepared according to ISO standard 10993-12. In their research, the authors focused on preparing metal-free, catalysed synthesis of polyester urethanes, which could prove useful to numerous biomedical applications.


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 665-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yottha Srithep ◽  
Wuttipong Rungseesantivanon ◽  
Bongkot Hararak ◽  
Krisda Suchiva

Abstract Currently, use of poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is limited for commercial applications because it has a low heat resistance. In this research, an increase of over 40°C heat distortion temperature (HDT) of PLA alloy was obtained by blending PLA with polycarbonate (PC) and a chain extender (CE). Molecular weight, thermal, mechanical and morphological properties of PLA and PC blend with different CE contents were investigated. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) results showed that some PLA-PC copolymers were produced and the compatibility of the PLA phase and in the PC phase was improved via the chain extension reaction. In addition, the reaction induced by CE also affected the crystallization behaviors of PLA, as observed from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results and the enthalpy of melting of PLA decreased with increasing CE content. The combined effects of the CE increasing molecular weight, improving compatibility and limiting the crystallization behavior of PLA/PC alloy greatly improved the HDT.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 58-65
Author(s):  
Ha Thi Thai La

In this research, the PLA-diol were synthesized from lactic acid (LA) and 1.4 butanediols (BD) with a tin octoate Sn(Oct)2 catalyst at a temperature of 180 °C and the pressure 5 mmHg. The structure and properties of PLA-diol are analyzed by the following methods: GPC, 1H-NMR and DSC. As a result, with the change in the content of Sn (Oct)2 from 0.1 to 1.0%, the molecular weight Mn of PLA - diol increased gradually from 4.119,2 to 7.359,6 g / mol . In addition, the BD content increased from 2.0% to 5.0%, the average molecular weight of the product decreased gradually from 7.536,9 g / mol to 4.735 g / mol, respectively. This change will affect the ability to use PLA-diol in the next denaturation research to apply in the field of biodegradable polymer such as copolymer with polyurethane, copolymer with polyethylene glycol diacid, or chain extension with other polymer in a chain reaction,...


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