Metaheuristic multi‐objective optimization for ring‐opening branched copolymerization of L‐lactide

Abstract Polylactide (PLA) synthesis plays a pivotal role in promoting sustainability through its applications in biodegradable packaging and medical devices. However, optimizing PLA production is a multi‐objective NP‐hard problem, requiring a delicate balance between conflicting objective functions such as maximizing average molecular weight, conversion rate, and degree of branching, while minimizing the monomer/inimer ratio, monomer/catalyst ratio, polydispersity index, and processing time. Therefore, this study addresses these challenges by utilizing the Elitist Non‐dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA‐II) to optimize the ring‐opening copolymerization of L‐lactide with 5‐hydroxymethyl‐1,4‐dioxane‐2‐one (5HDON) within the constraints. The optimization formulation yielded significant improvements in key parameters through four distinct case studies, achieving maximum values of Mn, Mw, conversion, and DB at 2800, 5630, 0.95, and 0.29, respectively, surpassing experimental results. Similarly, the minimization process effectively reduced M/C, M/I, and PDI to 4500, 70/30, and 1.35, respectively, within a reaction time of 0.2 hours. The results underscore the potential of this approach to enhance process efficiency and product performance, contributing to more sustainable consumption and production practices. Highlights Optimized branched L‐lactide/5HDON copolymer for diverse case studies NSGA‐II optimizes polymer properties for improved performance. Resultant Pareto Front presents the associated values of each decision variable. The Pareto front is categorized by specific processing parameter ranges. The obtained pareto optimal solution is compared with model result.