Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Functional Biodegradable Copolymer-Poly(lactic acid-4-hydr

A series of poly(lactic acid-4-hydroxyproline-polyethylene glycol) (PLA-Hpr-PEG) copolymers were synthesized by direct melt copolymerization of D,L-lactic acid and 4-hydroxyproline with different feed amount of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 0.1%, 0.5%, 1% and 5%, respectively. The properties of these copolymers were characterized by using IR spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), X-ray diffraction and differential scaning calorimetry (DSC). PLA-Hpr-PEG are amorphous copolymers. Copolymers showed increasing water uptake capacity with increasing PEG percentage in the feed, which result in an increasing degradable rate in phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.4) at 37℃.