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Effect of Arrangement of L ‐Lactide and D ‐Lactide in Poly[( L ‐lactide)‐ co ‐( D ‐lactide)] on its Resistance to Hydrolysis Studied by Molecular Modeling
Author(s) -
Karst David,
Yang Yiqi
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.200700283
Subject(s) - lactide , hydrolysis , copolymer , polymer chemistry , polymer , materials science , chemistry , organic chemistry , composite material
Molecular modeling is used to explain how the resistance of poly[( L ‐lactide)‐ co ‐( D ‐lactide)] to hydrolysis is affected by the percentages of L ‐ and D ‐lactide and their arrangements in blocks or random arrangements in the polymer. Previous studies on improving the hydrolysis resistance of PLA have involved forming either poly( L ‐lactide)/poly( D ‐lactide) (PLLA/PDLA) polyblends or copolymers of L ‐ and D ‐lactide. In this study, molecular modeling was used to study the hydrolysis resistance of PLA containing various arrangements of L ‐ and D ‐lactide in the polymers. PLA copolymers are found to have less resistance to hydrolysis than a PLLA/PDLA polyblend having the same percentages of L ‐ and D ‐lactide because a polyblend can form more stereocomplexes, which is the most stable structure PLA can form.