Investigation Of Thermal Behaviour Of Poly(citric acid)-Poly(L-lactide)-Poly(citric acid) Copolymer

Poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) has attracted increasing attention in recent years because of its biomedical applications. However PLA lacks functional groups, making it difficult to interactand to be modified with biologically active moieties [1]. To achieve the functional groups, the majority of modificationson PLLA to date have been made by introduction of some functional units in the hydrophobic segment [2]. In the present study, ABA type block copolymer containing a linear poly(Llactide)block (B) and a branched block bringing functional group namely a poly (citric acid) (PCA) block (A), for drugdelivery aspects, was synthetized. Then the effect of citric acid units on thermal characteristics of resulting copolymer wasinvestigated.