Preparation and characterization of degradation tunable poly(ε‐caprolactone) using a Sn(Oct) 2 /BF 3 dual catalyst

Tailoring the degradation rate of poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) was found to be easily accomplished by the polymerization of ε‐caprolactone using a Sn(Oct) 2 /BF 3 dual catalyst. The resulting PCL contained BF 3 , which acts as a hydrolytic degradation catalyst for PCL. The degradation rate of the polymer was controlled by the concentration of BF 3 in the polymer matrix. At lower BF 3 concentrations (<0.002 mol dm −3 ), the degradation rate was linearly proportional to the BF 3 concentration. At higher BF 3 concentrations, the degradation rate rapidly increased, significantly deviating from the linear relationship between degradation rate and BF 3 concentration. The system was found to be very versatile, producing PCL with degradation rates ranging from a half‐life of 0.9–46 weeks. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008