Levoglucosan (LGA) is an anhydrous pyrolytic sugar that
has gained
increasing attention in recent years. The highest focus on the conversion
of LGA and other anhydro carbohydrates obtained from cellulose aims
at the valorization of these molecules and their application in multiple
fields such as chemical and pharmaceutical industries. LGA presents
a rigid structure with three hydroxyl groups on a pyranose ring, making
it a promising building block for the synthesis of bio-based thermoplastic
polymers with pending OH groups as soon as a regioselective polymerization
is reached. In this work, a lipase-catalyzed series of LGA-containing
terpolymers were synthesized for the first time via regioselective
transesterification in two-stage polymerization. LGA was reacted with
diethyl adipate/sebacate and α,ω-diols to give terpolymers
with up to 35% of LGA content (related to the α,ω-diol
content), number-average molecular weights (M
n) of up to 7900 g·mol–1, and up to
94% yield. It was observed that the amount of LGA in the polymer structure
affects the crystallinity, hydrophilicity, and melting point of the
polymers. We also evaluated the effect of LGA loading and the comonomer’s
size on yields, molecular weight, and the incorporation of LGA in
the polymer structure. High loads of LGA lead to a decrease in the
yield, but a higher molecular weight and higher extent of LGA incorporation
in the polymer can be obtained.