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Computer Simulation of Polymer Chain Scission in Biodegradable Polymers
Andrew Gleadall and Jingzhe Pan*Department of Engineering, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
- Corresponding Author:
- Jingzhe Pan
Department of Engineering, University of Leicester
Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
Tel: +44 0116 223 1092
Fax: +44 0116 252 2525
E-mail: jp165@le.ac.uk
Received date: December 06, 2012; Accepted date: December 26, 2012; Published date: December 29, 2012
Citation: Gleadall A, Pan J (2013) Computer Simulation of Polymer Chain Scission in Biodegradable Polymers. J Biotechnol Biomater 3:154. doi:10.4172/2329-6674.1000154
Copyright: © 2013 Gleadall A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Biodegradable polymers are used in medical devices such as fixation plates, sutures, or micro particles for the controlled release of drugs. Typical polymers are poly lactic acid (PLA), poly glycolic acid (PGA), and poly caprolactone (PCL). During degradation, the ester bonds within polymer chains are cleaved due to the hydrolysis reaction in the presence of water. It has been suggested that both chain end scission and random chain scission occur [1] and mathematical models have been able to fit experimental data with assumptions of random scission [2-4], end scission [5], or a combination of both [6]. In random scission, every bond in a polymer chain is assumed to be equally susceptible to hydrolysis. In chain end scission, the final bond in a chain is cleaved resulting in the production of a monomer.
