Synthesis and structural study of copolymers of l-lactic acid and bis(2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate)

Poly(ethylene terephthalate)–poly(lactic acid) (PET–PLLA) copolyesters were synthesized by the melt reaction of bis(2-hydroxyethyl terephthalate) (BHET) with l-lactic acid oligomers (OLLA) in the presence of SnCl2, H2O–p-toluene sulfonic acid, H2O catalytic system. The 1H and 13C NMR studies confirm the incorporation of lactate units in PET chains after reaction. Copolyesters containing nearly equimolar terephthalate/lactate ratio are not completely random and present some block-copolymer character, while the microstructure of PET-rich copolyesters is a random one. Due to a longer PET sequence length, the latter exhibit a melting point close to 210 °C while the other ones are amorphous. SEC/MALDI-TOF MS off-line coupling was used to obtain the absolute average molar masses of the copolyesters. The results indicate that the conventional polystyrene calibration method leads to a strong overestimation of PET–PLLA molar masses, while the image determined by NMR is much closer to the SEC/MALDI value.