Effect of Chemical Composition Variant and Oxygen Plasma Treatments on the Wettability of PLGA Thin Films, Synthesized by Direct Copolycondensation.

Muhammad Ayyoob,Young Kim

doi:10.3390/polym10101132

Abstract

The synthesis of high molecular weight poly (lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) copolymers via direct condensation copolymerization is itself a challenging task. Moreover, some of the characteristic properties of polylactide (PLA)-based biomaterials, such as brittleness, hydrophobicity, and longer degradation time, are not suitable for certain biomedical applications. However, such properties can be altered by the copolymerization of PLA with other biodegradable monomers, such as glycolic acid. A series of high molecular weight PLGAs were synthesized through the direct condensation copolymerization of lactic and glycolic acids, starting from 0 to 50 mol% of glycolic acid, and the wettability of its films was monitored as a function of the feed molar ratio. Copolymerization was performed in the presence of a bi-catalytic system using stannous chloride dihydrate and methanesulfonic acid (MSA). The viscosity average molecular weight of the resulting PLGA was in the range of 80k to 135k g/mol. The PLGA films were prepared using the solvent casting technique, and were treated with oxygen plasma for 2 min. The water contact angle of the PLGA films was determined before and after the oxygen plasma treatments, and it was observed that the wettability increased with an increase in the glycolic acid contents, however, the manifolds increased after 2 min of oxygen plasma treatments.

Highlights

Biodegradable polymers have recently been widely investigated as a result of increasing interest in biocompatibility and biosafety [1,2]
A series of poly (lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) oligomers were synthesized with glycolic acid to a lactic acid molar feed ratio of 0/100 to 100/0
It was observed that the PLGAs with a higher proportion of glycolic acid were relatively less soluble in chloroform and took more time, and with 60% or more glycolic acid they were completely insoluble in chloroform

Summary

Introduction

Biodegradable polymers have recently been widely investigated as a result of increasing interest in biocompatibility and biosafety [1,2]. Linear poly(α-ester)s are the most interesting and widely investigated class of biodegradable polymers. Polylactides and polyglycolides as well as their copolymers are famous for their degradation profile, owing to labile ester linkages in their backbones, and the resulting products are safe, non-toxic, and biocompatible. Speaking, all classes of polyesters are susceptible to degradation, because of the reversibility of ester linkages, but for biomedical applications, only the polyesters with short aliphatic chains between these linkages are important [3]. Polyglycolic acid (PGA) is one of the first synthetic polymers, and it is studied for biomedical applications. The first biodegradable synthetic suture that was developed with PGA and was approved by the FDA

Methods

Results

Conclusion