Biobased Polymer System: Miniemulsion of Poly(alkyl methacrylate-graft-lactic acid)s

Abstract

To broaden the application scope of lactic acid polymers, a new miniemulsion of poly(alkyl methacrylate-graft-lactic acid)s has been developed. The graft copolymer synthesis was based on a poly(lactic acid) macromonomer having a methacryloyl polymerizable group. The macromonomer and a comonomer of n-butyl methacrylate together with a suitable surfactant formed a miniemulsion of the comonomers in water. A radical copolymerization of the comonomers took place to produce the graft copolymer as a stable miniemulsion. The copolymer showed elastic polymer properties. The miniemulsion system may find useful applications as a new biobased polymer material that is environmentally desirable.

Anti-hydrolysis performance of cured coating films of acrylic polyols with pendant poly(lactic acid)s

“…As previous our reports [30,31], PLA macromonomer derived from HEMA was obtained by ring-opening polymerization of lactides, of which the rate of functional group is >98% by NMR analysis and the degree of polymerization is from 4 to 10 by ESI-TOF-MS measurement.…”

“…PLA macromonomer with ring-opening polymerization of lactide (lactide method) was synthesized as previous our report [30,31].…”

“…The reason why we use HEMA as a source of polymerizable group is that HEMA can be introduced at the end of PLA by ringopening polymerization of lactide [30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. Two component paint coating of the graft type polyols obtained by copolymerization of HEMA and PLA macromonomer cured by polyisocyanate hardner can control coating film degradation, because HEMA cross-linking parts are hard to be hydrolyzed even if PLA cross-linking parts were hydrolyzed as shown in Fig.…”

“…In our previous reports, we synthesized bio-based emulsion by the emulsion polymerization of PLA macromonomer modified HEMA and n-butyl methacrylate (BMA) in water, and we measured physical properties of its cast film [30,31]. Although this polymer emulsion containing PLA can be expanded into resins for water borne paints, physical properties of this emulsion coating film were not enough because this film is formed by melting among these emulsion particles and cross-linking structure was not introduced.…”

Surfactant Effect in Miniemulsion Polymerization for Biodegradable Latexes

“…The authors observed differences between the various polymers in terms of the particle size (range of 80-200 nm), size distribution and degradation time. Ishimoto et al (2009) [27] obtained nanoparticles through the miniemulsion copolymerization of poly(alkyl methacrylate-gra/i-lactic acid)s. The new bio-based polymer system allowed miniemulsions stable in water to be produced, which can be used, for example, in coating processes as a biomass-polymer material. The size distribution of the monomer droplets was measured by dynamic light scattering showing diameters in the range of 220-340 nm, depending on the surfactant used.…”