Microwave-assisted rapid synthesis, characterization and application of poly (d,l-lactide)-graft-pullulan

A novel microwave-assisted method was developed to synthetize amphiphilic copolymer poly (d,l-lactide)-graft-pullulan (PL) in a monomode microwave reactor. The effects of microwave power, ratio of catalyst/lactide, ratio of lactide/hydroxyl group of pullulan (lactide/OH-P) and solvent on the synthesis were further investigated. Three samples (designated as PL 8, 9, and 6), characterized by FT-IR and NMR, were applied to form nanoparticles and microparticles investigated by dynamic light scattering, fluorescence spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. PL9 and PL6 were used for loading model drug curcumin. The results indicated that microwave-assisted synthesis shortened the copolymerization of PL, with higher yield and lactide conversion, from 24 h to 5 min and showed some specific microwave effects compared with conventional oil heating. PL with a relative higher substitution degree gave nanoparticles with smaller sizes and critical aggregation concentrations. The solubility of curcumin was increased to 1.97 mg mL−1 as the forms of nanoparticles.