Research on the Modification of Poly(<i>L-Lactic Acid</i>) by Glucose via Direct Melt Polycondensation

Abstract

Directly using L-lactic acid (L-LA) and glucose (Glu) as the starting materials, novel biodegradable material poly(L-lactic acid-co-glucose) [P(L-LA-co-Glu)] was synthesized via direct melt polycondensation. The copolymers P(L-LA-co-Glu)s at different molar feed ratios were characterized by FTIR,1H-NMR, GPC, DSC and XRD. All poly(L-lactic acid) modified by Glu was partly crystalline. And their Mw, Tm, and crystallinity basically increased with the increase of the molar feed ratio n(L-LA) : n(Glu). When n(Glu) : n(L-LA) was 1 : 750, the biggest Mw was 5900 Da, and all Mwcould meet the requirement for drug delivery application.