Effect of Arrangement of <scp>L</scp>‐Lactide and <scp>D</scp>‐Lactide in Poly[(<scp>L</scp>‐lactide)‐<i>co</i>‐(<scp>D</scp>‐lactide)] on its Resistance to Hydrolysis Studied by Molecular Modeling

Abstract

Abstract Molecular modeling is used to explain how the resistance of poly[( L ‐lactide)‐ co ‐( D ‐lactide)] to hydrolysis is affected by the percentages of L ‐ and D ‐lactide and their arrangements in blocks or random arrangements in the polymer. Previous studies on improving the hydrolysis resistance of PLA have involved forming either poly( L ‐lactide)/poly( D ‐lactide) (PLLA/PDLA) polyblends or copolymers of L ‐ and D ‐lactide. In this study, molecular modeling was used to study the hydrolysis resistance of PLA containing various arrangements of L ‐ and D ‐lactide in the polymers. PLA copolymers are found to have less resistance to hydrolysis than a PLLA/PDLA polyblend having the same percentages of L ‐ and D ‐lactide because a polyblend can form more stereocomplexes, which is the most stable structure PLA can form. magnified image