1,4-Dioxan-2-one (DOXA) was polymerized by means of Zn L-lactate (ZnLac2) as catalyst in bulk. Upon systematic variation of the temperature, the reaction time and the monomer/catalyst (M/C) mole ratio the highest molecular weights were obtained at 100°C and M/C ratios between 2 000 and 4 000. However, long reaction times (8–14d) were required to obtain optimum results. Zinc chloride proved to be a somewhat less reactive catalyst, whereas zinc bromide proved to be as efficient as ZnLac2. Addition of benzyl alcohol as a coinitiator at a fixed DOXA/ZnLac2 ratio allowed a systematic control of the molecular weight. Furthermore the formation of benzyl ester endgroups was detected. Moreover, ZnLac2 allows the incorporation of various bioactive alcohols or phenols (e.g. testosterone, stigmasterol, ergocalciferol, cortisone, α-tocopherol) in the form of ester endgroups. Finally several properties of polydioxanone are reported and discussed, such as solubilities, IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopic data and thermogravimetric analysis.
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Kricheldorf et al. (1998) studied this question.