Poly(lactic acid) Synthesis and Characterization

FH - HES

Authors

  • Pauline Sanglard Ecole d'Ingénieurs et d'Architectes de Fribourg, Institut de Chimie, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, CP 32, CH-1705 Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Vincent Adamo Ecole d'Ingénieurs et d'Architectes de Fribourg, Institut de Chimie, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, CP 32, CH-1705 Fribourg, Switzerland
  • J.-Pascal Bourgeois Ecole d'Ingénieurs et d'Architectes de Fribourg, Institut de Chimie, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, CP 32, CH-1705 Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Thierry Chappuis Ecole d'Ingénieurs et d'Architectes de Fribourg, Institut de Chimie, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, CP 32, CH-1705 Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Ennio Vanoli Ecole d'Ingénieurs et d'Architectes de Fribourg, Institut de Chimie, Boulevard de Pérolles 80, CP 32, CH-1705 Fribourg, Switzerland. ennio.vanoli@hefr.ch

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2012.951

Keywords:

Lactic acid, Lactide, Poly(lactic acid), Ring opening polymerization

Abstract

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a promising biodegradable polymer based on renewable resources. This paper describes scale-up studies to synthesize high molecular weight PLA (>100'000 g/mol) in five steps from commercial lactic acid. The first four steps of this process consist of synthesizing a highly pure precursor, lactide, which can be converted into a high molecular PLA by ring opening polymerization (ROP). We produced PLA with a molecular weight of 109'000 g/mol using this strategy.

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Published

2012-12-19