| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,680,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,080,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥2,340,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥540,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
A great interest has been given to the plastic derived from plants due to concerns on our environment. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is now commercially available and is applied to various use. However, one of issues is that the properties of PLA are highly dependent on the optical purity of lactic acid.
The aim of the research is to develop catalysts that can polymerize lactide with any level of optical purity and to synthesize PLA that indicates the melting temperature around/over 170 degrees C comparable to that of commercially available and optically pure poly(L-lactic acid). Such catalysts can be utilized for the synthesis of crystalline poly(lactic acid) in the chemical recycle system, in which the optical purity of lactic acid is easily reduced. After extensive experiments, we succeeded in development of the polymerization system using iso-selective achiral catalyst that afforded the crystalline poly(lactic acid) with the melting temperature at 167 ~ 209 degrees C.
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