Biobased polyester breakthrough could improve production rates

In Japan, researchers at the Toyohashi University of Technology have developed a method to producing a new lactic acid-based polyester with an alternating arrangement with a faster crystallization time.

Professor Hideto Tsuji and Assistant Professor Yuki Arakawa at described the alternating copolymer of L- and D-lactic acids in a recent issue of Polymer Chemistry. The polyester crystallizes faster, which could enable better productivity.

The can also be applied to polyesters derived from monomers of various optically active hydroxycarboxylic acids having a structure similar to that of lactic acid, to thereby synthesize a pure alternating copolymer of L- and D-type monomers.