Issue 40, 2013
From the journal:

RSC Advances

Synthesis and characterization of triblock copolymer PLA-b-PBT-b-PLA and its effect on the crystallization of PLA†

Jian Zhou,a   Zhiqiang Jiang,ab   Zongbao Wang,a   Jianqiang Zhang,ac   Jun Li,d   Ya Li,a   Junwu Zhang,a   Peng Chen*ae  and  Qun Gu*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Ningbo Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, PR China
E-mail: pchen@nimte.ac.cn, guqun@nimte.ac.cn
Fax: +86-574-86685186
Tel: +86-574-86685283

b School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

c School of Petrochemical Technology, Lanzhou University of Technology, Lanzhou, PR China

d School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, PR China

e Key Laboratory of New Marine Materials and Application Technology, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, Zhejiang, 315201, PR China

Abstract

A series of poly(L-lactide)-b-poly(butylene terephthalate)- b-poly(L-lactide) (PLA-b-PBT-b-PLA) triblock copolymers were synthesized via ring-opening polymerization of L-lactide with hydroxyl-functionalized poly(butylene terephthalate) (HOPBT) as macroinitiator and stanneous 2-ethylhexanoate (Sn(Oct)2) as the catalyst in 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE). The conversion of L-lactide was high and the PLA block in the copolymers showed high optical purity. Chemical structure and physical properties of the triblock copolymers were studied using NMR, GPC, DSC, and WAXD. The block structure of the copolymers was confirmed using NMR, and each block formed the same crystal type as the respective homopolymer, i.e., PLA or PBT as revealed by DSC and WAXD. The copolymer, even at a very low content (5 wt%), showed an unexpected favoring effect on the crystallization of PLA, which made it a potential polymeric nucleating agent for PLA.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis and characterization of triblock copolymer PLA-b-PBT-b-PLA and its effect on the crystallization of PLA

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C3RA42096E
Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 Apr 2013
Accepted
15 Jul 2013
First published
15 Jul 2013

RSC Adv., 2013,3, 18464-18473

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Synthesis and characterization of triblock copolymer PLA-b-PBT-b-PLA and its effect on the crystallization of PLA

J. Zhou, Z. Jiang, Z. Wang, J. Zhang, J. Li, Y. Li, J. Zhang, P. Chen and Q. Gu, RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 18464 DOI: 10.1039/C3RA42096E

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