Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) is a widely utilized polymer within the biomedical field; however, one of its limitations is the multi-year long degradation profile. Herein, we report a semiaromatic polyester-ether (SAEE) PCL copolymer using a salicylic acid–based monomer which can disrupt the semicrystalline nature of the bulk material. The molar percentage of incorporation correlated to a linear decrease in melting and crystallization temperature, until a totally amorphous solid was seen at 37 mol %. Alongside this, mechanical analysis elucidated a softer, more extensible material with E′ decreasing from 292 to 222 to 43.8 MPa for PCL to 10 to 22 mol % SAEE, respectively. Accelerated basic degradation studies (2 M NaOH) exhibited total mass loss after 16 weeks for 6 mol % compared to only 38% mass loss for PCL over the same period. Overall, by varying the SAEE mol %, we show the ability to finely tune the thermal, mechanical, and degradation profiles of PCL copolymers while maintaining an advantageous biological profile.

中文翻译：

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具有可调降解曲线的半芳香族聚酯醚


聚（ε-己内酯） （PCL） 是生物医学领域中广泛使用的聚合物;然而，它的局限性之一是长达多年的退化曲线。在此，我们报道了一种使用水杨酸基单体的半芳香族聚酯醚 （SAEE） PCL 共聚物，它可以破坏块状材料的半结晶性质。掺入的摩尔百分比与熔化和结晶温度的线性降低相关，直到在 37 mol % 处看到完全无定形的固体。除此之外，力学分析阐明了一种更柔软、更易伸展的材料，PCL 的 E′ 分别从 292 MP292 降低到 43.8 MPa 到 10 到 22 mol % SAEE。加速碱性降解研究 （2 M NaOH） 显示 6 mol % 在 16 周后总质量损失，而同期 PCL 仅损失 38%。总体而言，通过改变 SAEE mol %，我们展示了微调 PCL 共聚物的热、机械和降解曲线的能力，同时保持有利的生物学特性。