Enzymatic degradation of aliphatic polyesters copolymerized with various diamines

Abstract

AbstractPoly(hexamethylene adipate) copolymers with 10–40 mol‐% (in feed) of aliphatic diamines of various methylene chain lengths were prepared by melt polycondensation. In vitro degradation was performed in buffer solution at 37°C with a lipase and was evaluated by weight loss of the films. The weight loss increased greatly by the copolymerization and showed a maximum at 10 mol‐% of comonomer content. Degradation also increased in a zig‐zag fashion with decreasing number of methylene chains in the diamine comonomers. Both effects on the enzymatic degradation are discussed.