The cationic flocculant poly (lactic acid) choline iodide ester methacrylate, poly (PLA₄ChMA), is a promising candidate for dewatering oil sands mature fines tailings (MFT) that enhances solids consolidation as it undergoes partial hydrolysis. However, the degradation products have yet to be fully characterized. In the present work, proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) spectrometry is used to study the rate of hydrolytic degradation of poly (PLA₄ChMA) and its precursor macromonomer in aqueous solution by tracking the release of and fully identifying the products. Although a higher temperature and a higher initial pH enhance the macromonomer degradation rate, the chemical identity and relative amounts of the degradation products are the same as those released at milder conditions. The majority of macromonomer molecules degrade at 50 °C to a compound containing a single lactate unit attached to the methacrylate functional group, with 10–20% degrading completely to yield methacrylic acid. The polymer releases the same choline and lactic acid oligomer species, but at a much faster rate, over 1–2 weeks at 50 °C vs. 8–11 weeks for the macromonomer. At the end of degradation, the partially degraded water-insoluble polymer, ∼30 wt% of the original mass, contains on average approximately two lactate units attached to each methacrylate unit of the backbone, explaining the increase in hydrophobicity that is beneficial to the dewatering of MFT.

阳离子絮凝剂聚（乳酸）甲基丙烯酸胆碱碘代酸酯（PLA ₄ ChMA）是用于脱水油砂成熟细粒尾矿（MFT）的有前途的候选者，该尾矿可通过部分水解来增强固体固结。但是，降解产物尚未完全表征。在目前的工作中，质子核磁共振（¹ H NMR）光谱用于研究聚（PLA _4）的水解降解速率。（ChMA）及其前体大分子单体在水溶液中，通过跟踪产物的释放并对其进行完全鉴定。尽管较高的温度和较高的初始pH值可提高大分子单体的降解速率，但降解产物的化学特性和相对量与在较温和条件下释放的那些相同。大多数大分子单体分子在50°C时降解为包含一个连接至甲基丙烯酸酯官能团的乳酸单元的化合物，其中10–20％的化合物会完全降解，从而生成甲基丙烯酸。聚合物释放出相同的胆碱和乳酸低聚物，但速度要快得多，在50°C下需要1-2周，而大分子单体需要8-11周。降解结束时，部分降解的水不溶性聚合物约占原始质量的30 wt％，