NMR analysis and chemical shift calculations of poly(lactic acid) dimer model compounds with different tacticities

In this work, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) dimer model compounds with different tacticities were synthesized and studied in detail by 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in three solvents, deuterated chloroform (CDCl3)/CCl4 (20/80 v/v), CDCl3 and dimethyl sulfoxide -d6. All of the peaks in the 1H and 13C NMR spectra were assigned with the help of two-dimensional NMR. Although the solvents were different, the tacticity splitting of the dimers showed no significant difference among the solvents. The chemical shifts were calculated and compared with experimental shifts to understand the origin of the tacticity splitting in PLA. Thus, a conformational energy calculation was first performed to determine the energetically stable states in isotactic and syndiotactic dimers by several quantum chemical calculation methods. The 1H and 13C chemical shifts were then calculated for each conformation of the model compounds by considering both the conformational energies of the predominant conformation and the chemical shift of each conformation. The observed tacticity splitting of the chemical shifts between isotactic and syndiotactic 1H and 13C NMR peaks of the dimers was reproduced particularly well, using the combination of Becke’s three parameter hybrid method for conformational energy calculations and Hartree-Fock for chemical shift calculations.