Polylactide/Poly(ω-hydroxytetradecanoic acid) Reactive Blending: A Green Renewable Approach to Improving Polylactide Properties

A green manufacturing technique, reactive extrusion (REx), was employed to improve the mechanical properties of polylactide (PLA). To achieve this goal, a fully biosourced PLA based polymer blend was conceived by incorporating small quantities of poly(ω-hydroxytetradecanoic acid) (PC14). PLA/PC14 blends were compatibilized by transesterification reactions promoted by 200 ppm titanium tetrabutoxide (Ti(OBu)4) during REx. REx for 15 min at 150 rpm and 200 °C resulted in enhanced blend mechanical properties while minimizing losses in PLA molecular weight. SEM analysis of the resulting compatibilized phase-separated blends showed good adhesion between dispersed PC14 phases within the continuous PLA phase. Direct evidence for in situ synthesis of PLA-b-PC14 copolymers was obtained by HMBC and HSQC NMR experiments. The size of the dispersed phase was tuned by the screw speed to "tailor" the blend morphology. In the presence of 200 ppm Ti(OBu)4, inclusion of only 5% PC14 increased the elongation at break of PLA from 3 to 140% with only a slight decrease in the tensile modulus (3200 to 2900 MPa). Furthermore, PLA's impact strength was increased by 2.4× that of neat PLA for 20% PC14 blends prepared by REx. Blends of PLA and PC14 are expected to expand the potential uses of PLA-based materials.

Poly(ω-pentadecalactone)-b-poly(l-lactide) Block Copolymers via Organic-Catalyzed Ring Opening Polymerization and Potential Applications

Poly(pentadecalactone)-b-poly(l-lactide) (PPDL-b-PLLA) diblock copolymers were prepared via the organic catalyzed ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of l-lactide (l-LA) from PPDL macroinitiators using either 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) or 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec-5-ene (TBD). Synthesis of PLLA blocks targeting degrees of polymerization (DP) up to 500 were found to yield diblock copolymers with crystalline PPDL and PLLA segments when TBD was used as the catalyst. The synthesis was further improved in a one-pot, two-step process using the same TBD catalyst for the synthesis of both segments. The application of these diblock copolymers as a compatibilizing agents resulted in homogenization of a biobased PLLA/poly(ω-hydroxytetradecanoate) (90:10) blend upon a melt-process, yielding enhanced material properties.

Bio-based alternative to the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A with controlled materials properties

A series of biobased epoxy monomers were prepared from diphenolic acid (DPA) by transforming the free acid into n-alkyl esters and the phenolic hydroxyl groups into diglycidyl ethers. NMR experiments confirmed that the diglycidyl ethers of diphenolates (DGEDP) with methyl and ethyl esters have 6 and 3 mol % of glycidyl ester. Increasing the chain length of DGEDP n-alkyl esters from methyl to n-pentyl resulted in large decreases in epoxy resin viscosity (700-to-11 Pa·s). Storage modulus of DPA epoxy resins, cured with isophorone diamine, also varied with n-alkyl ester chain length (e.g., 3300 and 2100 MPa for the methyl and n-pentyl esters). The alpha transition temperature of the cured materials showed a linear decrease from 158 to 86 °C as the ester length increases. The Young's modulus and tensile strengths were about 1150 and 40 MPa, respectively, for all the cured resins tested (including DGEBA) and varied little as a function of ester length. Degree of cure for the different epoxy resins, determined by FTIR and DSC, closely approached the theoretical maximum. The result of this work demonstrates that diglycidyl ethers of n-alkyl diphenolates represent a new family of biobased liquid epoxy resins that, when cured, have similar properties to those from DGEBA.

High throughput, high resolution enzymatic lithography process: effect of crystallite size, moisture, and enzyme concentration

By bringing enzymes into contact with predefined regions of a surface, a polymer film can be selectively degraded to form desired patterns that find a variety of applications in biotechnology and electronics. This so-called "enzymatic lithography" is an environmentally friendly process as it does not require actinic radiation or synthetic chemicals to develop the patterns. A significant challenge to using enzymatic lithography has been the need to restrict the mobility of the enzyme in order to maintain control of feature sizes. Previous approaches have resulted in low throughput and were limited to polymer films only a few nanometers thick. In this paper, we demonstrate an enzymatic lithography system based on Candida antartica lipase B (CALB) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) that can resolve fine-scale features, (<1 μm across) in thick (0.1-2.0 μm) polymer films. A Polymer Pen Lithography (PPL) tool was developed to deposit an aqueous solution of CALB onto a spin-cast PCL film. Immobilization of the enzyme on the polymer surface was monitored using fluorescence microscopy by labeling CALB with FITC. The crystallite size in the PCL films was systematically varied; small crystallites resulted in significantly faster etch rates (20 nm/min) and the ability to resolve smaller features (as fine as 1 μm). The effect of printing conditions and relative humidity during incubation is also presented. Patterns formed in the PCL film were transferred to an underlying copper foil demonstrating a "Green" approach to the fabrication of printed circuit boards.

Chemo-enzymatic routes to lipopeptides and their colloidal properties

A unique chemo-enzymatic route to lipopeptides was demonstrated herein that, relative to alternative methods such as solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) and microbial synthesis, is simple, efficient, and scalable. Homo- and co-oligopeptides were synthesized from amino acid ethyl esters via protease catalysis in an aqueous media, followed by chemical coupling to fatty acids to generate a library of lipopeptides. Synthesized lipopeptides were built from hydrophobic moieties with chain lengths ranging from 8 to 18 and peptides consisting of oligo(L-Glu) or oligo(L-Glu-co-L-Leu) with an average of seven to eight repeating units. The chemical structures of the lipopeptides were characterized and confirmed by NMR and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). The colloidal and interfacial properties of these lipopeptides were characterized and compared in terms of the hydrophobic chain length, oligopeptide composition, and solution pH. The results showed correlation between the interfacial activity of the lipopeptides and the hydrophobicity of the fatty acid and oligopeptide headgroup, the effects of which have been semiquantitatively described in the manuscript. Results from these studies provide insights into design principles that can be further expanded in future work to access lipopeptides from protease-catalysis with improved control over sequence and exploring a wider range of peptide and lipid compositions to further tune lipopeptide biochemical and physical properties.