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Photocurable Shape‐Memory Copolymers of ε ‐Caprolactone and L ‐Lactide
Author(s) -
Nagata Minoru,
Yamamoto Yu
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201000106
Subject(s) - copolymer , caprolactone , lactide , polymer chemistry , materials science , polymer science , composite material , polymer
Biodegradable and photocurable block copolymers of ε ‐caprolactone and L ‐lactide were synthesized by polycondensation of PLLA diol ( $\overline {M} _{{\rm n}} $ = 10 000 g · mol −1 ), PCL diol ( $\overline {M} _{{\rm n}} $ = 10 000 g · mol −1 ), and a chain extender bearing a coumarin group. The effect of copolymer composition on the thermal and mechanical properties of the photocured copolymers was studied by means of DSC and cyclic tensile tests. An increase in Young's modulus and a decrease in the tensile strain with increasing PLLA content was observed for the block copolymers. Block copolymers with high PCL content showed good to excellent shape‐memory properties. Random copolymers exhibited R f and R r values above 90% at 45 °C for an extremely large tensile strain of 1 000%.