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Hydrolytic degradation of glycolide/ L ‐lactide/ε‐caprolactone terpolymers initiated by zirconium(IV) acetylacetonate
Author(s) -
Hu Yanfei,
He Yong,
Wei Jia,
Fan Zhongyong,
Dobrzynski Piotr,
Kasperczyk Janusz,
Bero Maciej,
Li Suming
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.25529
Subject(s) - hydrolysis , crystallinity , degradation (telecommunications) , caprolactone , lactide , polymer chemistry , hydrolytic degradation , copolymer , autocatalysis , zirconium , chemistry , biodegradation , polymer , polycaprolactone , materials science , organic chemistry , catalysis , telecommunications , computer science , crystallography
A series of terpolymers obtained from glycolide/ L ‐lactide/ε‐caprolactone were compression molded and allowed to degrade in a pH 7.4 phosphate buffer at 37°C. Analytical techniques such as 1 H‐NMR, DSC, ESEM and SEC were used to monitor the degradation. Heterogeneous degradation was observed due to internal autocatalysis of carboxylic endgroups formed by ester bond cleavage. Nevertheless, the copolymers present various degradation behaviors depending on the initial composition. The PCL component appears the most resistant to degradation, and the PGA, the most degradable according to compositional changes. Terpolymers could crystallize during degradation even though they were amorphous initially. Degradation‐induced increase of crystallinity was also found during hydrolysis. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl PolymSci 103: 2451–2456, 2007