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Effects of Structural Change Induced by Physical Aging on the Biodegradation Behavior of PLGA Films at Physiological Temperature
Author(s) -
Yoshioka Taiyo,
Kawazoe Naoki,
Tateishi Tetsuya,
Chen Guoping
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/mame.201100109
Subject(s) - materials science , biodegradation , annealing (glass) , degradation (telecommunications) , amorphous solid , plga , enthalpy , chemical engineering , composite material , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , chemistry , nanoparticle , telecommunications , physics , computer science , engineering
The effects of structural changes induced by physical aging (namely, enthalpy relaxation) on the biodegradability of PLGA films at physiological temperature (37 °C) is investigated. The degradation rate and behavior of aged and non‐aged PLGA films are compared, and the effects of physical aging on the biodegradability of the PLGA film are determined. Prior to the degradation experiments, aged films are prepared by annealing the amorphous PLGA films at 25 °C for 5 d or more. The degradation rate of aged films in accelerated degradation tests using aqueous NaOH is higher than those of non‐aged films due to heterogeneous microscopic structural changes that occur during the aging process.