Synthesis and characterization of poly(l-lactide-co-glycolide)

Poly(l-lactide-co-glycolide)(PLGA) with different compositions was prepared using stannous octaoate as catalyst by bulk ring-opening copolymerization of l-lactide and glycolide. The structure and properties of the PLGA copolymers were characterized by means of attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), ¹H NMR, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. The experimental results indicate that the synthetic conditions and the composition of copolymers have an obvious influence on the structure of PLGA copolymers. The degradation rate of copolymers increased with the increasing of the glycolide component in the copolymers.