Abstract
Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) was mixed with submicron particles of barium sulfate to obtain biodegradable radiopaque composites. X-ray images comparing with aluminum samples show that 15 wt.% barium sulfate (BaSO4) is sufficient to present radiopacity. Thermal studies by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) show a statistically significant increase in PCL degree of crystallinity from 46% to 52% for 25 wt.% BaSO4. Non-isothermal crystallization tests were performed at different cooling rates to evaluate crystallization kinetics. The nucleation effect of BaSO4 was found to change the morphology and quantity of the primary crystals of PCL, which was also corroborated by the use of a polarized light optical microscope (PLOM). These results fit well with Avrami–Ozawa–Jeziorny model and show a secondary crystallization that contributes to an increase in crystal fraction with internal structure reorganization. The addition of barium sulfate particles in composite formulations with PCL improves stiffness but not strength for all compositions due to possible cavitation effects induced by debonding of reinforcement interphase.
Highlights
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in biodegradable polymers for biomedical applications as temporary surgical implants and templates for tissue engineering
The degree of crystallinity (Xc ) of PCL and its composites was calculated according to Equation (1), where ∆Hm is the melting enthalpy, ∆Hm ◦ is the melting enthalpy of 100 % crystalline PCL taken as 139 J g−1 [33] and XBaSO4 is the real barium sulfate fraction in samples obtained by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)
The main goal of the current study was to study the relationship between crystallization behavior, mechanical properties and radiopacity of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and its barium sulfate (BaSO4 ) composites
Summary
There has been an increasing interest in biodegradable polymers for biomedical applications as temporary surgical implants and templates for tissue engineering. Polyesters based on polylactides and polylactones present tremendous interest in this field because of their biocompatibility, tunable mechanical properties and biodegradability [1,2,3,4,5,6] Among these polymers, poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) stands out, as it widely used in tissue engineering and drug delivery platforms [7,8,9,10,11,12]. Despite its success as implantable material, in comparison to metals, its low radiopacity makes it difficult to detect by X-ray imaging techniques. To overcome this difficulty, the use of composites with high radiopaque fillers is being investigated. Barium sulfate (BaSO4 ) is a standard in medical applications, approved by the FDA and used for X-ray assisted implantation to control the position of polymer implants and drug delivery systems during biodegradation [9,19,20]
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