Macromolecular Rapid Communications, Vol.17, No.8, 583-587, 1996
Enzymatic degradation of aliphatic polyesters copolymerized with various diamines
Poly(hexamethylene adipate) copolymers with 10-40 mol-% (in feed) of aliphatic diamines of various methylene chain lengths were prepared by melt polycondensation. In vitro degradation was performed in buffer solution at 37 degrees C with a lipase and was evaluated by weight loss of the films. The weight loss increased greatly by the copolymerization and showed a maximum at 10 mol-% of comonomer content. Degradation also increased in a zig-zag fashion with decreasing number of methylene chains in the diamine comonomers. Both effects on the enzymatic degradation are discussed.