Biodegradable Poly-pentadecalactone (PDL) Synthesis via Synergistic Lipase and Microwave Catalysis

A large number of currently used synthetic biodegradable polymers in biomedical engineering applications are polyesters based materials and thus research on the synthesis, properties, manufacturing and processing of aliphatic polyesters continues to be of great importance. Poly-ω-pentadecalactone (PPDL) a lactone based ring opening polymer has good mechanical properties and the presence of hydrolysable ester linkages along the polymer chain making it desirable as a biodegradable material for diversified biomedical engineering applications. In this paper we report the formation of PPDL using the synergistic effects of lipase and microwave (MW) technology. The effect of reaction time on the PPDL polymer chain growth has been investigated. PPDL have been formed using lipase and MW irradiation at varying reaction time intervals (30-240 mins). Synergistic MW and lipase catalyzed polymerization of PPDL gave a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 24,997 g/mol and a polydispersity index (PDI) of 1.93 in 240 mins as compared to Mn of 8,060 g/mol and PDI of 2.17 using lipase and traditional heating. Thermal characterization of PPDL formed using MW and lipase catalysis showed that MW did not have a detrimental effect on the thermal properties of the polymer obtained.