Synthesis, Characterization And Application Of Glycolic Acid/Caprolactone Copolymer

Biodegradable polymer, a kind of material which could be decomposed into carbon dioxide(CO2)and water(H2O) under the action of microorganisms or enzyme has a wide range of applications in the field of surgical suture, fracture internal fixation, tissue repair and slow-releasing material. In this paper, the synthesis, characterization and application of biodegradable copolyester of glycolic acid (GA) and caprolactone (CL), has been investigated in detail. The main contents of this paper were list as follows:1. Concerning the polymerization technologies, the way of preparing copolyester with high intrins ic viscosity was discussed by optimizing the induced water distill time, the total water distill time, the start distill temperature, the esterification end time, vacuum, polycondensation temperature and vacuum time. The structure and property of the obtained copolyesters were also characterized. It was found from the DSC that the melting point and the cooling crystallization temperature decreased with the increasing TG testing indicated that the decomposition temperature would slightly rise when introduced CL into PGA, and along with the increasing of decomposition temperature the processing temperature window then has been widen. The composition calculated from the NMR data were found to be identical to the original feeding ratio of the monomers.2. The monomer ratio and the high vacuum time during the polymerization were investigated further. It has been found when the (caprolactone)CL content was about7mol%the high molecular weight of copolyester would be obtained, and the longer vacuum the higher molecular weight. However, the decomposition has also been found when the vacuum time exceeded7.5hr.3. The coplyester with7mol%of CL promised a high intrinsic viscocity and a fine comprehensive performance of intensity and tough. Therefore, a direct melting spinning has been carried out for this kind of porymerization product. The average intensity of the obtained monofilament were tested to be0.75cN/dtex, basically meeting the needs of surgical sutures. XRD analysis showed that the crystallization mainly came from the GA segments, however, the crystalline orientation was rather low. The results of cytotoxicity testing identified that this material was almost non-toxic.4. Finally, the electrostatic spinning copolymer films were manufactured and tested. It has been found that the nominal elongation intensity of the felt was about4.13MPa and its tough was relatively good. The degradation measurement carried out in the simulated body fluid showed that the copolymer possessed good biodegradability...