Synthesis and characterization of biodegradable poly(ester‐imide) nanocomposites with L‐alanine, curcumin, and modified rGO

Abstract

The article discusses the synthesis of a novel biodegradable poly(ester-imide) (PEI) based on L-alanine, utilizing N-trimellitylimido-L-alanine diacid and curcumin. The degradation tests of polymer in Tris-Hcl buffer at 37.5 C after 2 weeks showed a decrease in average molecular weight from 2.38 Â 10 4 to 1.85 Â 10 4 , which confirms the biodegradability of PEI. The PEI was further enhanced through in situ polymerization with reinforcing nanoparticles, rGO, and rGO-EDA. Various characterization techniques were employed to evaluate the synthesized polymer and composites, including NMR, elemental analysis, FT-IR, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). PEI composites exhibited higher thermal stability than pure PEI. Tensile strength also improved significantly, with increases of 29.55% and 87.42% for rGO and rGO-EDA compared to pure PEI. We suggest that these polymers have tunable properties, which may potentially be considered for biodegradable polymer scaffolds.