Influence of Trifluoroacetic Acid Addition on Reversed Phase HPLC Analysis of Oligo(lactic acid)

Abstract

With the recent increase in demand for biodegradable plastics triggered by the microplastics problem, the reuse of waste is also attracting attention. For example, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland holds a patent to produce high-purity oligo(lactic acid) (OLA) from polylactic acid waste. If a new useful strain capable of assimilating the OLA can be discovered, it will be possible to produce useful substances from polylactic acid-based waste. For that purpose, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between bacteria and the OLA. As part of this, we tried to analyze the hydrolysis behavior of oligo(lactic acid) using reverse-phase HPLC. From the results, it was shown that the addition of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) to the HPLC eluent significantly suppressed the broadening of the peaks derived from the OLA, enabling the quantification of OLA. The analytical method will be useful for investigating the effects of useful bacteria on the OLA.