Thermoplastic biodegradable elastomers based on ε-caprolactone and L-lactide block co-polymers: a new synthetic approach.

Although biodegradable polymers have found extensive application in medical devices, there are very few commercially available elastomeric biodegradable polymers. In this work, starting with the well-known monomers L-lactide and ε-caprolactone, we developed elastomers using a multiblock co-polymer approach. This ensures that the degradation products of such elastomers are also acceptable from a cytotoxicity standpoint. A series of polymers with various structures was synthesized utilizing a design of experiment approach. The basic structure is that of a diblock, with each block being modified by the addition of co-monomer. The synthesized polymers exhibited a range of mechanical properties from a typical thermoplastic polymer to that approaching a good thermoplastic elastomer. 13C nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, size exclusion chromatography and differential scanning calorimetry measurements have been utilized to relate the observed range of mechanical properties to the structure. In addition, the elastomeric nature has been established with the use of creep and recovery measurements. Such elastomers may find a variety of biomedical applications, ranging from stent coatings to atrial septal defect occluders.