Poly(lactide)/Perfluoropolyether Block Copolymers: a Potential Candidate as Protective and Surface Modifier

Pefluoropolyethers are a well known and widely used family of polymers, suitable to be employed as protective. Their main drawback is the lack of solubility, complete only in chlorofluorocarbons. In this work a serie of A-B-A block copolymers (FluoPLA), with a relative low molecular weight, were prepared by ROP of L- and D,L-lactide (PLA) in the presence of hydroxy terminated perfluoropolyether (Fluorolink® D-10H - FLK) as macroinitiator. In fact the use of block copolymers leads to different advantages: i.e. a limited segregation phenomena and higher polymer solubility. The resulting polymers were characterized (NMR, IR, GPC, DSC, light scattering) and tested as potential protective and surface modifier for cultural heritage (ESEM-EDS, solar-box technique, colorimeter analysis).