Synthesis of lactate (LA)-based poly(ester-urethane) using hydroxyl-terminated LA-based oligomers from a microbial secretion system

Abstract

D-Lactate (LA)-based oligomers (D-LAOs), consisting of D-LA and D-3-hydroxybutyrate (D-3HB), are biobased compounds which are produced and spontaneously secreted by recombinant Escherichia coli. By supplementing the bacterial cultivation with diethylene glycol (DEG), the oligomers featuring hydroxyl groups at both ends of their structures, the D-LAOs-DEG, can be efficiently biosynthesized. In the present work, we attempted to verify the feasibility of D-LAOs-DEG as building blocks to be assembled into LA-based poly(ester-urethane) via polyaddition reaction with diisocyanate. The polymeric products were demonstrated by SEC and the urethane bound formation in the polymer was determined by FT-IR analysis, indicating that the polymerization was successfully performed. These results suggested that the one-step biosynthesized D-LAOs-DEG are potential substrates for the synthesis of LA-based poly(ester-urethane) and can be further applied to the synthesis of other LA copolymers.