Transesterification as a plausible new route for PLGA

Abstract

Biodegradable polymers have a wide range of applications in biomedical and pharmaceutical areas as well as producing bio disposable packaging materials. As natural resources of these materials are limited, finding new methods of production is in progress. Here, we report a new method of synthesizing PLGA copolymer which is biodegradable polyester. PLGA copolymer is generally produced from lactic and glycolic acid or their cyclic dimers lactide and glycolide, in this report, we have attempted to use the methodology of melt transesterification as a tool for the polycondensation of ester derivatives of lactic and glycolic acid as monomers. Here, homopolymers of these monomers PLA and PGA were also produced in order to compare them with copolymers. To understand the influence of different structural parameter in the synthesis of these PLGA copolymers, we investigated different ester derivatives of both glycolic and lactic acid. These monomers were synthesized by esterification of lactic and glycolic acid. All the monomers and polymers were characterized by NMR, GPC, and DSC-TGA.