Synthesis and characterization of ultrahigh molecular mass biodegradable thermoplastic elastomers

• Main Author: Meng, Xiang.
• Other Authors: Marc Jean Medard Abadie
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Biomaterials; DRNTU::Engineering::Materials::Organic/Polymer electronics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/49787
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Biopolymers are playing an important role in today’s medical science. Organocatalysts, due to their non-toxic property, are attracting more and more attention. The effectiveness of two recently reported organocatalysts, triazabicyclodecene (TBD) and 1,3-bis-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl) imidazole-2-ylidene, for ring-opening polymerization has been tested by synthesizing several biopolymers, including polylactide, polycaprotactone, polytrimethylene carbonate, and polyvalerolactone. Althoughpolymers with high molecular masses and small polydispersity indexes were expected, the results were not ideal. Unexpected poor control of polymerization was found, leading to a doubt about the credibility of the work published.Based on the experiment results, several explanations have been provided, and recommendationsfor further research in this area have been given.