Synthesis and characterization of tannin grafted polycaprolactone.

Tannin and biodegradable polyester have attracted increasing interest for biomedical applications. To improve their compatibility, a novel tannin grafted polycaprolactone (TA-g-PCL) has been synthesized via ring-opening polymerization reaction. The structure of the product is characterized with FTIR, (1)H NMR and GPC. GPC results show that the experimental molecular weight is far less than the theoretical due to complicated stereo structure and large steric hindrance of tannic molecule, but the polydispersity of the product is narrow. At 115.76:1 of molar ratio of CL to tannin, molecular weight of the product reaches the maximum. Thermodynamics properties and dissolubility of TA-g-PCL are closely related to its molecular weight. With PCL molecular chain grows, TA-g-PCL changes from amorphous form to crystalline structure, and its dissolubility in chloroform is also enhanced significantly.