The
current work focuses on the ring-opening polymerization (
ROP
) of
l
-lactide (
LLA
) using N-heterocyclic
functionalized molecules as an initiator for the synthesis of metal-free
poly(
l
-lactide) (
PLLA
) conjugates. With this
motivation, we have used a drug molecule, nicotine, having N-heterocyclic
functionality as the initiator for the synthesis of
PLLA
conjugates. Structural characterizations carried out using matrix-assisted
laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, Fourier
transform infrared, and NMR establish the reacting species during
polymerization in the absence of any side reactions. However, side
reactions occurred because of the absence of steric hindrance when
polymerization is initiated using nicotine in the presence of benzyl
alcohol. Accordingly, we report here a detailed investigation on the
mechanism of nicotine as an initiator and propose an anionic-based
mechanism for the
ROP
of
LLA
. Studies on
the kinetics parameters have been performed for the nicotine-initiated
ROP
of
LLA
and have found that polymerization
proceeds with a first-order dependence on both the monomer and initiator
concentrations with a low activation energy of 4.9 kcal·mol
–1
. Further, thermal release studies performed by hyphenated
thermogravimetric–Fourier transform infrared analysis found
that nicotine is released along with reduced toxins from these synthesized
PLLA
–nicotine conjugates. Thus, these
PLLA
–nicotine conjugates can in turn open up a new era in tobacco
industries for the preparation of synthetic cigarettes and also in
biomedical applications for drug delivery purposes. Herein, a few
preliminary experiments using another drug molecule, nicorandil, having
similar N-heterocyclic functionality were also conducted to support
the role of nicotine as an initiator for the synthesis of
PLLA
conjugates.