POLYMERIZATION OF LACTIC ACID BY MAGHNITE-H[sup +] A NON-TOXIC MONTMORILLONITE CLAY CATALYST

Abstract

The development of synthetic biodegradable polymers, such as poly(lactic acid), is particularly important for constructing medical devices, controlled drug release matrix, including scaffolds and sutures, and has attracted growing interest in the biomedical field. Here, we report a novel approach to preparing poly (D, L‐lactic acid) (PDLA) as a biodegradable polymer. We investigated in detail the reaction conditions for the simple direct polycondensation of D, L‐lactic acid, including the reaction times, temperatures, and catalyst. The molecular weight of synthesized PDLA is dependent on both the reaction temperature, amount of catalyst and time. The optimum reaction condition to obtain PDLA by direct polycondensation using Maghnite‐H+[1,2], a proton exchanged Montmorillonite clay, as catalyst was thus determined to be 120 °C, 5% amount of Maghnite‐H+ for 28 h with a molecular weight of 7970. The method for PDLA synthesis established here will facilitate production of PDLA of various molecular weights, wh...