Abstract: Poly(L-lactic acid-co-β-alanine), a novel biodegradable polyesteramide, was produced by direct melting copolymerization with stannous chloride and p-toluenesulfonic acid as the catalyst, and characterized via FTIR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, GPC and DSC. To optimize the copolymerization conditions, the content of catalyst, copolymerization temperature and time, as well as the feed ratio, were investigated. The results show the copolymers with a high molecular weight could be obtained from the copolymerization process conducted at 180 ℃ for 15 h with 1.5% of stannous complex catalyst under vacuum. The hydrolytic degradation test in PBS(pH=7.2, 37 ℃) indicates poly(L-lactic acid-co-β-alanine) has an excellent degradability, which could provide a potential application in the biomedical field as a drug control released material.

Key words: Polyesteramide, Direct melting copolymerization, Stannous complex catalyst, Biodegradable material