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Preparation of Robust Poly( ε ‐caprolactone) Hollow Spheres with Controlled Biodegradability
Author(s) -
Shi Zengqian,
Zhou Yongfeng,
Yan Deyue
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.200600307
Subject(s) - caprolactone , biodegradation , materials science , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , spheres , composite material , chemistry , organic chemistry , polymer , copolymer , engineering , physics , astronomy
Summary: This work reports a new type of poly( ε ‐caprolactone) (PCL) robust hollow sphere with controllable biodegradability, produced by grafting PCL shells from the surface of silica sphere cores and removing the template cores. Bis( ε ‐caprolactone‐4‐yl) (BCY) composed of two ε ‐caprolactone molecules was used as the crosslinker, which not only greatly strengthened the PCL hollow spheres but also brought hardly any non‐biodegradable component into the system. Solubility experiments and biodegradation tests show that the crosslinked PCL hollow spheres were robust both in water and acetone, and were completely biodegradable with characteristics of controllable biodegradability according to the content of the BCY. The Rhodamine release test indicated that the release rate of encapsulated drugs in the PCL hollow spheres was controlled by diffusion and the biodegradability of the PCL molecules, and the latter mechanism will dominate when more enzymes are involved.Reaction scheme for synthesis of linear and crosslinked hollow poly( ε ‐caprolactone) spheres.