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Preparation and analyses of stereocomplexes of a polylactide homopolymer and copolymer with poly(ethylene glycol) and urethane capping

Polymer Journal volume 54, pages 151–160 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Polylactide (PLA) stereocomplexes (SCs) formed by poly(L,L-lactide) (PLLA) and poly(D,D-lactide) (PDLA) are well known, and their derivatives and copolymers have also been reported. However, little research has been conducted on SCs with a combination of one enantiomer of a copolymer and a homopolymer. In this study, we selected a PLA copolymer with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and a urethane capping PLA bearing almost the same molecular weights as PLA segments and prepared various SC samples. Depending on the combination of L-isomers and D-isomers, the SCs were classified as a Homo-SC, Co-SC, and Multi-SC: the Homo-SC had the same polymer chain ends and copolymers, the Co-SC had different polymer chain ends and copolymers, and the Multi-SC had a mixture of various polymer chain ends and copolymers. Depending on the chain end structures, the melting points of the SCs changed in the case of Homo-SC and Co-SC, but Multi-SC showed two broad melting points at ~200 °C. We propose that these findings are the results of the various combinations of polymer–polymer interactions in the case of Multi-SC.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research in Innovative Areas (JP20H05223), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (JP20H02799), and Fostering Joint International Research (B) (JP19KK0277). This study was also partly supported by AMED under Grant Number JP20lm0203014.

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  1. Division of Materials Science, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama-cho, Ikoma, Nara, 630-0192, Japan

    Jaeyeong Choi & Hiroharu Ajiro

  2. Data Science Center, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, 8916-5 Takayama-cho, Ikoma, Nara, 630-0192, Japan

    Hiroharu Ajiro

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  1. Jaeyeong Choi
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Jaeyeong Choi and Hiroharu Ajiro equally contributed to this work.

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Choi, J., Ajiro, H. Preparation and analyses of stereocomplexes of a polylactide homopolymer and copolymer with poly(ethylene glycol) and urethane capping. Polym J 54, 151–160 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41428-021-00564-1

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