Investigation of the effects of solvent, temperature, and reaction time parameters on ring-opening polymerization of L-lactid with benzoin initiator

In this thesis, the effects of solvent, temperature, and reaction time parameters on the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of L-lactide monomer with benzoin initiator were investigated and optimum conditions were attempted to be determined. As it is known, alcohols are used as initiator in ring opening polymerization and Sn(Oct) 2 is used as catalyst. Benzoin can act as both an initiator in ring- opening polymerization and a photoinitiator in cationic photopolymerization, thanks to its hydroxyl group and photochromophoric group. Therefore, the benzoin compound was used as the initiator in the ring-opening polymerization of the L-lactide monomer. As a result of the experiments, it was found that the optimum conditions for the ring-opening polymerization of L-lactide in the presence of benzoin initiator were reached in a solvent-free bulk medium, at 130 °C and after 4 hours reaction time. By using this prepared macrophotoinitiator as a prepolymer in the cationic polymerization of cyclohexene oxide monomer, AB type diblock copolymer was synthesized and thus the photoactivity of the obtained macrophotoinitiator was proven.