Anionic Ring-Opening Copolymerization of L-Lactide with a Five-Membered Cyclic Carbonate Having a Glucopyranoside Structure

The anionic ring-opening copolymerization of L-lactide (LL) with a five-membered cyclic carbonate having the glucopyranoside structure, methyl 4,6-O-benzilidene-2,3-O-carbonyl-alpha-D-glucopyranoside (MBCG), was carried out using potassium tert-butoxide (t-BuOK) as the initiator and tetrahydrofuran (THF) as the solvent at 30 degrees C for 12h. The mole fractions of LL in the copolymer (f(LL)) of all copolymers were nearly equal to the corresponding mole fraction of LL in the feed (F(LL)). Deprotection of the copolymer was performed using trifluoroacetic acid in dichloromethane. (1)H NMR spectra of the resulting product indicated that deprotection was completely achieved due to the absence of the aromatic proton signals.