Fluoro‐functionalized PLA polymers as potential water‐repellent coating materials for protection of stone

A series of sixteen fluoro‐functionalized poly(lactic acid)s were synthesised using two commercial fluorinated alcohols [3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,8‐tridecafluoro‐1‐octanol and 4‐(3,3,4,4,5,5,6,6,7,7,8,8,8‐tridecafluorooctyl)benzyl alcohol] as co‐initiators in the ring‐opening polymerization of L‐lactide and rac‐lactide (the racemic mixture of L‐ and D‐lactide) catalyzed by Tin(II) 2‐ethylhexanoate. The polymers were characterized by NMR, IR, GPC, DSC and tested as potential protective coating for stone. The performances were comparatively evaluated in terms of water protection efficacy and colour changes of the treated stone. Furthermore, the photo‐stability of nine selected polymers under Solar Box condition was also investigated. It has been shown that the presence of fluorine makes the stone more water‐repellent. The polymers showed also interesting photo‐stability and some of them provided a behavior close to PLA‐FLK‐PLA block copolymers recently reported in the literature, in spite of their lower fluorine content © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.