Copolymers from unsaturated macrolactones: toward the design of cross-linked biodegradable polyesters.

Inge van der Meulen, Yingyuan Li, Ronald Deumens, Elbert A J Joosten, Cor E Koning, Andreas Heise

Eindhoven University of Technology, Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry, Den Dolech 2, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Biomacromolecules 2011 Mar 14

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The enzymatic synthesis of a series of random copolyesters by ring-opening polymerization of unsaturated macrolactones like globalide and ambrettolide with 1,5-dioxepan-2-one (DXO) and 4-methyl caprolactone (4MeCL) was investigated. (13)C NMR diad analysis confirmed the randomness of all copolymers irrespective of the comonomer ratios. Thermal investigation showed that incorporating the comonomers lowered the melting points of the polymers as compared with the macrolactone homopolymers. The decrease was dependent on the comonomer ratio. The unsaturated copolymers were thermally cross-linked using dicumyl peroxide, which resulted in completely amorphous insoluble networks. It was found that 10% incorporation of the unsaturated macolactone was sufficient to obtain a gel content of 95 wt %. Preliminary degradation tests confirm that the cross-linked copolymers are enzymatically degradable and that the incorporation of hydrophilic comonomers like DXO enhances degradation.

Citation

Inge van der Meulen, Yingyuan Li, Ronald Deumens, Elbert A J Joosten, Cor E Koning, Andreas Heise. Copolymers from unsaturated macrolactones: toward the design of cross-linked biodegradable polyesters. Biomacromolecules. 2011 Mar 14;12(3):837-43