Polyglycolic acid (PGA), which is an important biodegradable polymer, can traditionally be synthesized through the ring opening polymerization of glycolide (with mostly using tin octanoate catalyst). Our previous studies revealed that PGA was alternatively synthesized with one-step cationic polymerization of formaldehyde from trioxane and carbonmonoxide (CO), sustainable C1 feedstocks obtainable from biomethanol or biogas. PGA and its copolymers can be mainly used for the biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability. In order to utilize PGA in other marketing materials such as packaging, PGA should be specifically engineered to improve its physical properties by a copolymerization strategy utilizing appropriate comonomers since PGA displays brown or beige color and is not soluble in most organic solvents due to its very high crystallinity. In this study; to improve on the physical properties of PGA, such as melting temperature and solubility, polymerizations of trioxane, CO and a minor amount of epoxides with long side chains were performed under the same reaction condition as PGA homopolymer synthesis (DCM solvent, at 800 psi, with triflic acid catalyst, reaction time of 72 h). The results have shown that optimum polymerizations were achieved at lower reaction temperatures than that of PGA homopolymer synthesis (110 °C versus 170 °C). The melting temperatures of all copolymers are lower, and the colors of the copolymers have become lighter than that of PGA homopolymer. The solubilities of obtained copolymers also increased by increasing side chain length of epoxides in the polymer backbone.

聚乙醇酸（PGA）是一种重要的可生物降解的聚合物，传统上可以通过乙交酯的开环聚合反应合成（主要使用辛酸锡催化剂）。我们以前的研究表明，PGA是由三恶烷和一氧化碳（CO）（一种可从生物甲醇或沼气获得的可持续的C1原料）的甲醛一步一步阳离子聚合而合成的。PGA及其共聚物由于其生物相容性和生物降解性而可主要用于生物医学应用。为了在包装等其他营销材料中使用PGA，由于PGA呈棕色或米色，并且由于其非常高的结晶度而不能溶于大多数有机溶剂，因此应通过使用适当的共聚单体的共聚策略对PGA进行特殊设计，以改善其物理性能。在这项研究中; 为了改善PGA的物理性能（例如熔融温度和溶解度），在与PGA均聚物合成相同的反应条件下（DCM溶剂在800 psi下，用三氟甲磺酸催化剂，反应时间为72小时）。结果表明，在比PGA均聚物合成更低的反应温度下（110°C对170°C）实现了最佳聚合。所有共聚物的熔融温度都较低，并且共聚物的颜色比PGA均聚物的颜色更浅。所得共聚物的溶解度也通过增加聚合物主链中环氧化物的侧链长度而增加。