Synthesis of Linear Polylactic Acid-Based Polyurethanes

Polyurethanes are an industrially useful and unique class of polymers with a broad range of applications. Their properties can be tailored by varying the type and amount of theircomponents: the chain extender, polyol, diisocyanates, and catalyst. A hydroxyl-terminated prepolymer was synthesizedby Hiltunen et al. with 1,4-butanediol; isocyanate was then used as a chain extender to increase the molecular weight. There are only a few published works on the preparation ofbiodegradable polyurethanes from PLA in the literature. The object of this study is to investigate the capability of PLA tohigh molecular weight poly(ester-urethane) (PEU). In this study we have synthesized PEU based on polylactic acid; in fact, the polyol used in our work was a Hydroxyl-terminated Polylactic Acid (PLA-OH) synthesized in our laboratory.