Hydrolytic Degradation of Comb-Like Graft Poly (Lactide-co-Trimethylene Carbonate): The Role of Comonomer Compositions and Sequences

The effect of sequence on copolymer properties is rarely studied, especially the degradation behavior of the biomaterials. A series of linear-comb block, gradient, random copolymers were successfully achieved using hydroxylated polybutadiene as the macroinitiator by simple ring-opening polymerization of l-lactide (l-LA) and 1,3-trimethylene carbonate (TMC). The hydrolytic degradation behaviors of the copolymers were systemically evaluated by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to illustrate the influences of comonomer compositions and sequence structures. The linear-comb block copolymers (lcP(TMC-b-LLA)) with different compositions had different degradation rates, which increased with l-LA content. Thermal property changes were observed with decreased T(m) and increased ΔH(m) in all block copolymers during the degradation. To combine different sequence structures, unique degradation behaviors were observed for the linear-comb block, gradient and random copolymers even with similar comonomer composition. The degradation rates of linear-comb PLLA-gradient-PTMC (lcP(LLA-grad-TMC)) and linear-comb PLLA-random-PTMC (lcP(LLA-ran-TMC)) were accelerated due to the loss of regularity and crystallinity, resulting in a remarkable decrease on weight retention and molar mass. The hydrolysis degradation rate increased in the order lcP(TMC-b-LLA), lcP(LLA-ran-TMC), lcP(LLA-grad-TMC). Therefore, the hydrolytic degradation behavior of comb-like graft copolymers depends on both the compositions and the sequences dramatically.