Hydrolytic degradation of PCL-PLLA semi-IPNs exhibiting rapid, tunable degradation.

ABSTRACT: Accelerating the rate of polyester hydrolytic degradation is of interest for numerous biomedical applications. Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) have been extensively studied as thermoplastic homo- and copolymers as well as PCL-PLLA blends. PCL-PLLA semi-interpenetrating networks (semi-IPN) prepared with thermoplastic PLLA embedded in a cross-linked PCL diacrylate (PCL-DA) network were previously shown to exhibit uniquely accelerated degradation behavior that increased with PLLA content. Herein, their properties before and during degradation were further investigated to reveal the origin of this behavior and to better understand the semi-IPNs' degradation mechanism. Initially, semi-IPNs exhibited restricted spherulite size and irregularity, as well as a phase-separa

SUBMITTER: Woodard LN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6801114 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature