Miktoarm star polylactic acid/polybutylene succinate and its coherent characteristics

Abstract

Miktoarm stars possess unique molecular architectures which each polymer chain expresses its physico-chemical properties either individually or integratedly. Up to present, although various biodegradable copolyesters, especially poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), are known, the miktoarm star PLA/PBS is still not investigated. The present work proposes the application of arm-first approach to prepare core-crosslinked miktoarm star of poly(lactic acid) and poly(butylene succinate) (CCS-PLA/PBS). By simply polymerizing the bromo‑terminated macroinitiators with divinyl monomers, PLA and PBS chains are fixed at a central core to allow polymeric core-shell nanoparticle formation. As thermal properties of PLA and PBS are different, the variation of PLA/PBS ratio in CCS initiates thermo-responsive performances under glass transition temperature (Tg) and melting temperature (Tm) of PLA and PBS. The present work shows how the combination of two biodegradable polyesters as CCS introduces a new type of responsive nanoparticle which can be expected for advanced materials in biological applications.