Research on the Modification of Poly(L-lactic acid) by Glucose via Direct Melt Polycondensation

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, H-1-NMR, GPC, DSC and XRD. All poly(L-lactic acid) modified by Glu was partly crystalline. And their M-w, T-m, and crystallinity basically increased with the increase of the molar feed ratio n(L-LA) : n(G1u). When n(Glu) : n(L-LA) was 1 : 750, the biggest M-w was 5900 Da, and all M-w could meet the requirement for drug delivery application.