| Summary: | Recently, there is an increasing number of applications in which stents are widely used for. They are generally used for maintaining structural integrity of conduits in the human body until the conduits possess the capability of doing so naturally. Some applications of stents are in the treatment of trachealmalacia and coronary heart diseases. Currently, the common materials used are metals and silicone. However, due to various limitations of metals and silicone, an imperative need for biocompatible and biodegradable polymeric stents beckons.
The major objectives of this project is to study the water uptake, degradation properties and examine the relationship between 1st order rate constant, k and [H2O] in the proposed 2nd order rate of reaction of A: PLLA-PCL, B: PLLA-PCL with 10% TEC, C: PLGA 75/25 and D: PLGA 75/25 with 10% TEC. In addition, their individual D values and effect of TEC on their water uptake fraction were determined. These results will hence aid in the determination of the viability of the aforementioned polymers as suitable candidates for biodegradable polymeric stents to be implanted into the human body.
The method used is the weighing method, whereby samples are exposed to 2 different environments, namely fully immersed (W/W) and floated (W/A) on deionised water, taken out weekly to obtain its wet weight, and then its dry weight after allowing them to dry in an incubator at 37°C for 1 week. Subsequently, the number-average molecular weight (Mn) of the samples was analysed by a gel permeation chromatography (GPC) system.
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