October 09, 2024, 08:12:53 AM
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Topic: Oligomerisation of L-Lactic acid to Prepolymer  (Read 1733 times)

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Offline MahoneyTree

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Oligomerisation of L-Lactic acid to Prepolymer
« on: August 10, 2024, 08:45:09 AM »
I am working on my Thesis in which i synthesised PLA out of L-lactic acid. I am using the Methods from a research paper from the HEIA-FR which i linked here aswell.

https://www.chimia.ch/chimia/article/view/2012_951/4616

The second step is to perform a polymerisation of pure lactic acid to a prepolymer of PLA. I have done this and know what the educt aswell as product formulas are, but I don't know what happens in terms of a chemical process during the polymerisation.

Simply put, I need someone to explain to me what happens to the lactic acid molecule durng the polymerisation so that it turns into the prepolymer.

Thank you very much for your help

Offline Hunter2

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Re: Oligomerisation of L-Lactic acid to Prepolymer
« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2024, 09:17:08 AM »
Ist a simple polycondensation with the Carboxyl and Hydroxylgroups of the acid. Using catalyst to get the chain length or cyclisation.

Offline rolnor

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Re: Oligomerisation of L-Lactic acid to Prepolymer
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2024, 05:18:02 PM »

Online Babcock_Hall

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Re: Oligomerisation of L-Lactic acid to Prepolymer
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2024, 10:23:54 AM »
https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/infrared-spectroscopy-of-polymers-viii-polyesters-and-the-rule-of-three


This is a good discussion of the infrared spectroscopy of related polymers, just in case you might be interested.

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