Development and characterization of a family of shape memory, biocompatible, degradable, porous (co)-polyurethanes via sol-gel chemistry

In support of the goal of a tissue engineering scaffold that is moldable, biodegradable and has shape-memory, this work explored the space of polyurethane sol-gel formulations and solvents to create a biocompatible, porous xerogel with potential to be such a porous scaffold. The work has resulted in both a process and a sol-gel formulation to effectively create a family of degradable, biocompatible, shape memory, porous, block copolyurethane xerogels from polycaprolactone and castor oil. Formulations of the sol-gel family of potential scaffolds were characterized for their biocompatibility, hydrolytic degradability, porosity, and shape memory. Of the scaffolds tested in this fashion, the most successful supported the attachment and growth of 3T3 fibroblast cells at 72% of the rate of attachment and growth in the standard tissue culture plastic Petri dishes.;A method was developed and explained that selects the solvent for creation of a porous xerogel by controlling the phase separation of the polymerizing polyurethane from the reaction solution. This method uses standard polymer solvent swelling and extraction test data. Solvent solutions plotted in the 3-D space of Hansen solubility parameters were used to select solvents that produced porous xerogels from two different polyurethane sol-gel formulations.;The process effectively combines a set of methods that search the sol-gel formulation spaces for both shape-memory and porosity. Easily produced dense xerogels from trial sol-gel formulations are sufficient for DSC and initial DMA shape-memory test data, as well as standard solvent swelling and extraction test data to support the search for shape memory and the computation of rankings to select solvent(s) that is most likely to produce a porous xerogel. Accelerated degradation tests on the dense xerogels also produced results useful to guide further testing of the sol-gel formulations.;Standard shape-memory research testing only characterizes the free return to shape or the shape memory force with no return from a tensile test. Characterization of the scaffold's compressive shape memory (percent strain recovery under stress) offers a clinical user design data for interactions with body tissue. Standard tensile shape memory ratios were translated to the compressive stress, strain, and temperature cycles used to characterize the shape-memory abilities of the two sol-gel families tested. The advantage of a thermoset polymer's ability to achieve 100% shape memory repeatability is demonstrated. This scaffold's compressive shape memory actuation energy density was above 6.0 KJ/m 3 over a range of recovery strains from 5% to 12%.