Synthesis of poly(l-lactide) by static mixing reaction technique via ring-opening polymerization of l-lactide

Abstract A green, rapid and energy-saving synthesis method of poly( l -lactide) (PLLA) via ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of l -lactide was developed in this work. The ROPs were performed in a tubular static mixing reactor. The effects of properties of l -lactide, catalyst dosage, polymerization temperature, flow rate of reactants and reaction time on the properties of resultant polymers were investigated. The results showed that high quality PLLA polymer with a Mw of 166,000, a PDI of 1.48 and an optical purity over 99% could be obtained in a relatively short reaction time (90 min) under suitable reaction conditions by using this technique. Therefore, this method is an low-carbon and high-efficient process for synthesizing high quality PLLA.