One-pot synthesis of novel branched polylactide through the copolymerization of lactide with mevalonolactone

Polylactide, which is a biodegradable and bio-absorbable polymer having low immunogenicity and good biocompatibility, has been mainly studied for biomedical applications. Branched polymers have different rheological and mechanical properties compared with their linear counterparts owing to their molecular architectures. we synthesized novel biodegradable polylactide having a branched structure composed of metabolically degradable and/or absorbable materials only. The branched polylactide was obtained from a one-pot copolymerization of L-lactide using metabolic intermediate DL-mevalonolactone as a bifunctional comonomer having both lactone ring and pendant hydroxy group. The glass transition point, melting point and crystallinity of the branched polylactide are lower than those of linear polylactide.