Biodegradable membrane of poly(l-lactide acid-dioxanone-glycolide) and stereocomplex poly(lactide) with enhanced crystallization and biocompatibility

Abstract

The membranes of poly(l-lactide acid-p-dioxanone-glycolide) (PLPG) with stereocomplex poly(lactic acid) (sc-PLA) were prepared by the solution blending way. It was observed that sc-PLA significantly heightened the crystallizing behavior of PLLA segments of the PLPG matrix. The crystallizing behavior displayed that the temperature of crystallization shifted to a higher range than that of PLPG. Moreover, the half-time of crystallization sharply decreased in value as the sc-PLA content increased in value on account of the pre-eminent nucleation ability of sc-PLA. TGA results revealed the thermal stability of the samples with the increase of sc-PLA compared to PLPG. Meanwhile, enzymatic degradation results indicated that the mass loss rate of the membrane decreased with the introduction of sc-PLA, but the overall degradation ability was still greater than that of PLLA. In the meantime, the biological experiment indicated that the membrane possessed low cytotoxicity.