AUTHOR=Cai Guiyang , Hou Zhipeng , Li Peng , Sun Wei , Guo Jing , Yang Liqun , Yang Qing 

TITLE=More Precise Control of the In Vitro Enzymatic Degradation via Ternary Self-Blending of High/Medium/Low Molecular Weight Poly(trimethylene carbonate)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2021.733535

DOI=10.3389/fmats.2021.733535

ISSN=2296-8016

ABSTRACT=To more precisely control the degradation rate of PTMC, PTMC self-blending films were prepared via the ternary self-blending of pure PTMC with molecular weight of 334, 152 and 57 kg/mol. The in vitro enzymatic degradation of the PTMC self-blending films was performed in lipase solutions. The results showed that the ternary self-blending could control the degradation of PTMC by adjusting the mass ratio of high/medium/low molecular weight PTMC in composition, and the PTMC334/PTMC152/PTMC57 films with a mass ratio of 1/4/16 showed a mass loss of 85.96% after 7 weeks degradation, while that of PTMC334/PTMC152/PTMC57 films with a mass ratio of 1/1/1 was 96.39%. The degradation rate constant of the former and the latter was 13.263 and 23.981%/w, respectively, and the former presented a better form-stability than the latter. The ternary self-blending could simultaneously bestow PTMC with lower degradation rate and good form-stability, indicating that ternary self-blending is an effective strategy to control the degradation of PTMC more precisely.