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Performance of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles as Polymerization Initiating Systems in the Microwave‐Assisted Synthesis of Poly( d , l ‐Lactide)/ZnO Nanocomposites
Author(s) -
RodríguezTobías Heriberto,
Morales Graciela,
EnríquezMedrano Francisco J.,
Grande Daniel
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
macromolecular symposia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.257
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-3900
pISSN - 1022-1360
DOI - 10.1002/masy.201600102
Subject(s) - lactide , materials science , nanoparticle , polymerization , nanocomposite , zinc , chemical engineering , polymer , polymer chemistry , ring opening polymerization , nanotechnology , composite material , engineering , metallurgy
Poly( D,L ‐lactide) (PLA) is a biodegradable polymer widely used in medical applications, whose properties can be diversified by the incorporation of multifunctional nanoparticles. In this report, the microwave‐assisted ring‐opening polymerization of D,L ‐lactide in the presence of ZnO nanoparticles was conducted to produce ZnO‐ graft ‐PLA nanocomposites. A comparative kinetic study of polymerization processes in mono‐modal and multi‐modal microwave reactors was addressed. Thanks to spectroscopic, thermal, and microscopic characterizations, the simultaneous formation of free PLA chains and grafted ones on ZnO nanoparticle surface was demonstrated, and the resulting products were carefully analyzed.