Chemical Processing and Physical-Chemical and Mechanical Characterizations of Poly (L-co-D, L lactic acid)/Polyethylene Glycol Mixtures for Application as a Biomedical Device

Abstract

The chemical processing of polymeric mixtures is a promising alternative for designing materials with new characteristics for biomedical applications. This work proposed to produce and characterize polymeric mixtures obtained using polyethylene glycol (PEG400 or PEG4000) with poly (L-co-D, L lactic acid)/PLDLA for biomedical use. The mixtures were prepared by the casting method. Characterizations were performed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), mechanical properties (perforation, resilience, elastic modulus, plastic deformation, tensile strength and mucoadhesion) and in vitro biodisintegration studies. The results obtained by FTIR and DSC suggest that the chemical interactions that generate the mixtures between the polymers occurred through hydrogen bonds and/or dipole-dipole interactions. Chemical interactions created compounds that were more hydrophilic and had different rearrangements when using PEG400 or PEG4000 in the mixture. The mechanical tests showed changes in the resistance of the materials, highlighting the exponential value of plastic deformation of PLDLA/PEG400, significantly increasing the plasticity of this structure by 111-fold about PLDLA/PEG4000. In the biodisintegration study, after 120 hours, greater mass loss was observed for PLDLA/PEG4000 (68.82 ± 1.46%). Hydrolytic disintegration did not influence pH values, which remained between 7.34 and 7.41 during the study. In conclusion, these mixtures can provide valuable characteristics to produce a biocompatible biomedical device with properties to support tissue regeneration, where the issue of plastic deformation is necessary in collaboration with the formation of pores, after PEG dissolution in vivo .