High Internal Phase Emulsion Ring-Opening Polymerization of Pentadecanolide: Strategy to Obtain Porous Scaffolds in a Single Step

Single-step process for production of porous scaffold based on poly(pentadecanolide) (PPDL) is reported. The scaffold is produced via in situ porosity generation during ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of the lactone pentadecanolide (PDL) in high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) using a water soluble enzyme (Lipase TL) as catalyst. The enzyme present in dispersed aqueous phase of HIPE effectively carries out ROP of monomer present in continuous oil phase. The polymerization occurs at the interface of oil and water in HIPE and complete monomer conversion is achieved in 96 h at 40 degrees C. Porous scaffold having interconnected pores is obtained as the final product and formation of PPDL is confirmed by spectroscopic and thermal analysis. The process thus developed is a single-step process to produce porous scaffolds via ROP of a lactone that can be extended to see its efficacy using monomer-soluble organometallic catalysts and monomers other than PDL including lactones, lactides, and cyclic carbonates.