Polycaprolactone graft copolymers

H.J. Yu, W.S. Wang, X.S. Chen, C. Deng, X.B. Jing, Synthesis and characterization of the biodegradable polycaprolactone-graft-chitosan amphiphilic copolymers. Biopolymers 83 (October 15, 2006) 233-242. 

Liu L, Xu X et al (2009) Synthesis and self-assembly of chitosan-based copolymer with a pair of hydrophobic/hydrophilic grafts of polycaprolactone and poly(ethylene glycol). Carbohydr Polym 75 401 07... 

PHA chemical modification can be done via block copolymerizadon and grafting reactions, chlorination, cross-linking, epoxidation, hydroxyl and carboxylic acid functionalization, etc. (Chen et al. 2009 Wu et al. 2008 Li et al. 2003 Loh et al. 2007). A common approach to confer toughness to PLA is the use of a flexible monomer or macromolecules for copolymerization with lactide to form PLA-based random or block copolymers. Reported PLA-based block copolymers include diblock, triblock, and multiblock copolymers, such as poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA)-polycaprolactone (Jeon et al. 2003), poly(ethylene glycol)-PLLA (Chen et al. 2003), poly(trimethylene carbonate)-PLLA (Tohru et al. 2003), and PLA-PBS-PLA. 

Applications. Poly(ethylene oxides) are readily grafted with acrylic acid to give partially biodegradable detergent pol5miers (208-210). Grafts onto other substrates include poly(vinyl alcohol) (211), water-soluble maleic anhydride copolymers (212), polycaprolactone (213), and onto emnlsion polymers of acrylates and methacrylates (214). 

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