The grafting of acrylamide onto poly(ε-caprolactone) and poly(1,5-dioxepan-2-one) using electron beam preirradiation. III. The grafting and in vitro degradation of chemically crosslinked poly(1,5-dioxepan-2-one)

✍ Scribed by M. Ohrlander; R. Palmgren; A. Wirsén; A.-C. Albertsson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 124 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0887-624X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0518(19990601)37:11<1659::aid-pola11>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Acrylamide was graft polymerized onto the surface of a chemically crosslinked and amorphous biodegradable polyester, poly(1,5-dioxepan-2-one). Electron beam irradiation at a dose of 5 Mrad was used to generate the initiating species in the polyester. The degradation behavior in vitro at pH 7.4 and 37°C in a phosphate buffer solution was studied for untreated, irradiated, and acrylamide-grafted polymer. Differences in weight loss performance were observed between virgin and treated polymers. The acrylamide-grafted poly(1,5-dioxepan-2-one) was totally degraded after 43 weeks as compared to 48 weeks for the irradiated and 55 weeks for the virgin polymer. On the other hand, the treated polymers showed a higher resistance to degradation in terms of weight loss during the intermediate part of the degradation, i.e., between about 5 and 35 weeks. After this period, the irradiated and particularly the acrylamide grafted poly(1,5-dioxepan-2-one) degraded much more rapidly than the virgin polymer.