Citation: Gawdzik, B.; Bukowska- ´ Sluz, I.; Koziol, A.E.; Mazur, L. Synthesis and Characterization of Biodegradable Polymers Based on Glucose Derivatives. Materials 2023, 16, 253. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ma16010253 Academic Editor: Halina Kaczmarek Received: 6 December 2022 Revised: 21 December 2022 Accepted: 24 December 2022 Published: 27 December 2022 Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). materials Article Synthesis and Characterization of Biodegradable Polymers Based on Glucose Derivatives Barbara Gawdzik * , Izabela Bukowska- ´ Sluz, Anna E. Koziol and Liliana Mazur Institute of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Gliniana 33, 20-614 Lublin, Poland * Correspondence: barbara.gawdzik@mail.umcs.pl Abstract: Syntheses of two new monomers, namely the glucose derivatives 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-1 methacryloyl-glucopyranose (MGlc) and 2,3,4,6 tetra-O-acetyl-1-acryloylglucopyranose (AGlc), are presented. Their chemical structures were determined by the FTIR, 1 H and 13 C NMR spectroscopies, the single-crystal X-ray analysis, supported by the powder X-ray diffraction, and the DSC anal- yses. Molecules of both monomers exist in the β-anomeric form in the solid state. The variable temperature X-ray diffraction studies, supported by the DSC analyses, revealed AGlc’s propensity for polymorphism and temperature-induced phase transitions. MGlc and AGlc crystallised from methanol were polymerized or copolymerized with methyl methacrylate and N-vinylpyrrolidone. The biodegradabilities of polymers as well as thermal and optical properties were studied. The results show that some properties of the obtained homopolymers and copolymers resemble those of PMMA. The main difference is that the AGlc and MGlc homopolymers are biodegradable while PMMA is not. The ternary copolymers, i.e., MGlc/AGlc-MMA-NVP lose more than 10% of their weight after six months. Keywords: glucose; acryl- and methacryl derivatives; copolymerization; biodegradable polymer; polymorphism of monomer 1. Introduction Carbohydrates are the most abundant class of organic compounds found in living organisms. They are synthesised by green plants during the complex process of photosyn- thesis, in which sunlight provides the energy to transform carbon dioxide and water into glucose. Then, many glucose molecules are combined by covalent bonds, creating a reserve material in the form of plant cellulose or starch [1,2]. At present, sugars and their processed products are used in different areas of industry. Lately, they have been increasingly used for the production of plastic packaging [3]. Most plastic packaging is manufactured from synthetic polymers which are very durable and hardly decompose in the environment. This contributes to the increasing amount of plastic waste, causing serious environmental and economic problems. Therefore, the ideal solution to this problem is to produce plastics with biodegradable components [4–8]. Two approaches are usually used, involving the creation of blends with biodegrad- able fillers, for example, with starch, or research on the synthesis of polymers from new monomers obtained as a result of chemical modification of natural compounds [9,10]. Sugars are an attractive substrate for the synthesis of new polymers due to their abundance and availability. Incorporating them into complex chemical structures increases the likelihood of their disintegration. However, polysaccharides are used for this purpose much more often than simple sugars. Among simple sugar-derived monomers, those containing bicyclic diols based on 1,4:3,6-dianhydrohexitols or diols derived from D-glucitol are studied extensively [11–15]. Materials 2023, 16, 253. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma16010253 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/materials