TY - JOUR A1 - Kricheldorf, H. R. A1 - Meyer, A. A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - High Tm Poly(l-lactide)s by Means of Bismuth Catalysts? N2 - One series of BiSub-catalyzed ring-opening polymerizations (ROPs) is per-formed at 160 °C for 3 days with addition of difunctional cocatalysts to find out, if poly(l-lactide) crystallizes directly from the reaction mixture. An analogous series is performed with monofunctional cocatalysts. High Tm crystal-lites (Tm > 190 °C) are obtained from all bifunctional cocatalysts, but not from all monofunctional ones. It is shown by means of SAXS measurements that the high Tm values are mainly a consequence of a transesterification–homogenization process across the lamellar surfaces resulting in thickness and smoothing of the surfaces. An unusual enthalpy-driven modification of the molecular weight distribution is found for samples that have crystallized during the polymerization. A third series of ROPs is performed at 170 °C for 2 h followed by annealing at 120 °C (2 h) to induce crystallization. Complete transformation of the resulting low Tm crystallites (Tm < 180 °C) into the high Tm crystallites by annealing at 170 °C for 1 d is not achieved, despite variation of the cocatalyst. KW - Polylactide KW - MALDI-TOF MS KW - Crystallization PY - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-522777 SN - 1022-1352 VL - 222 IS - 8 SP - 19 PB - Wiley AN - OPUS4-52277 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Meyer, A. A1 - Kricheldorf, H. R. A1 - Weidner, Steffen T1 - ROPs of L-lactide catalyzed by neat Tin(II)2-ethylhexanoate - Influence of the reaction conditions on Tm and ΔHm N2 - L-Lactide was polymerized by means of neat SnOct2 with variation of LA/Cat ratio, temperature and time. The resulting cyclic polylactides crystallized spontaneously at 160 °C or below, but needed nucleation via mechanical stress at 165 or 170 °C. All the crystalline polylactides obtained directly from ROP above 120 °C had melting temperatures (Tm) above 189 °C (up to 194.5 °C). SnOct2 also enabled transformation of low Tm poly(L-lactide)s (Tm <180 °C) into the high Tm m1odification by annealing, due to the impact of transesterification reactions in the interphase between the crystallites. The influence of crystallization temperature and annealing time on the crystal thickness was studied via SAXS measurements. A comparison with the crystallization and annealing experiments reported by Pennings and coworkers and Tsuji and Ikada is discussed, and a satisfactory agreement has been found, because those authors also studied polyLA samples containing SnOct2 in its active form. It is also demonstrated in this work that the high Tm modification cannot be obtained when the catalyst is removed or poisoned as it is true for commercial polylactides. KW - Polylactide KW - MALDI-TOF MS KW - Crystallization PY - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2021.124122 SN - 0032-3861 VL - 231 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford AN - OPUS4-53194 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Meyer, A. A1 - Falkenhagen, Jana A1 - Kricheldorf, H. R. T1 - SnOct2-catalyzed and alcohol-initiated ROPs of L-lactide – About the influence of initiators on chemical reactions in the melt and the solid state N2 - SnOct2 (Sn(II) 2-ethylhexanoate) catalyzed ROPs of L-lactide were performed in bulk with eight different alcohols as initiators. The time was varied between 1 h and 24 h for all initiators. For two initiators the temperature was also lowered to 115 ◦C. Even-numbered chains were predominantly formed in all polymerizations at short times, but the rate of transesterification (e.g. even/odd equilibration) and the molecular weight distribution were found to depend significantly on the nature of the initiator. Observed transesterification reactions also continued in solid poly (L-lactide), and with the most active initiator, almost total equilibration was achieved even at 130 ◦C. This means that all chains including those of the crystallites were involved in transesterification reactions proceeding across the flat surfaces of the crystallites. The more or less equilibrated crystalline polylactides were characterized by DSC and SAXS measurements with regard to their melting temperature (Tm), crystallinity and crystal thickness. KW - Polylactide KW - MALDI-TOF MS KW - Crystallization KW - Catalysts KW - SAXS PY - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2021.110508 VL - 153 SP - 110508 PB - Elsevier Ltd. AN - OPUS4-52633 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Meyer, A. A1 - Chatti, S. A1 - Kricheldorf, H. R. T1 - About the transformation of low Tm into high Tm poly(L-lactide)s by annealing under the influence of transesterification catalysts N2 - Cyclic polylactides were prepared in bulk at 170 °C, crystallized at 120 °C and then annealed at temperatures between 130 and 170 C with variation of catalyst, catalyst concentration and annealing time. The transformation of the initially formed low melting (LTm) crystallites, having melting temperatures (Tm) <180 °C into high melting (HTm) crystallites having Tm values > 189 °C was monitored by means of DSC measurements and characterized in selected cases by SAXS measurements. It was confirmed that the formation of HTm crystallites involves a significant growth of the thickness of the lamellar crystallites along with smoothing of their surface. Annealing at 170 °C for 1 d or longer causes thermal degradation with lowering of the molecular weights, a gradual transition of cyclic into linear chains and a moderate decrease of lamellar thickness. An unexpected result revealed by MALDI TOF mass spectrometry is a partial reorganization of the molecular weight distribution driven by a gain of crystallization enthalpy. KW - Polylactide KW - MALDI-TOF MS KW - Crystallization KW - Annealing PY - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-521062 VL - 11 IS - 5 SP - 2872 EP - 2883 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-52106 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kricheldorf, H. R. A1 - Weidner, Steffen A1 - Meyer, A. T1 - High Tm linear poly(L-lactide)s prepared via alcohol-initiated ROPs of L-lactide N2 - Alcohol-initiated ROPs of L-lactide were performed in bulk at 160 °C for 72 h with variation of the catalyst or with variation of the initiator (aliphatic alcohols). Spontaneous crystallization was only observed when cyclic Sn(II) compounds were used as a catalyst. Regardless of initiator, high melting crystallites with melting temperatures (Tm) of 189–193 °C were obtained in almost all experiments with Sn(II) 2,2′-dioxybiphenyl (SnBiph) as catalyst, even when the time was shortened to 24 h. These HTm poly(lactide)s represent the thermodynamically most stable form of poly(L-lactide). Regardless of the reaction conditions, such high melting crystallites were never obtained when Sn(II) 2-ethylhexanoate (SnOct2) was used as catalyst. SAXS measurements evidenced that formation of HTm poly(L-lactide) involves growth of the crystallite thickness, but chemical modification of the crystallite surface (smoothing) seems to be of greater importance. A hypothesis, why the “surface smoothing” is more effective for crystallites of linear chains than for crystallites composed of cycles is discussed. KW - Polylactide KW - MALDI-TOF MS KW - Ring-opening polymerization PY - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-524330 VL - 11 IS - 23 SP - 14093 EP - 14102 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-52433 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -