A new class of amino acid-based poly(ester urea)s (PEUs) were developed with tunable mechanical proprieties, water uptake ability and degradation rates. Our previous in vitro and in vivo studies have shown the great potentials of this 1,6-hexanediol L-phenylalanine based PEU in the surgical repair of bone defects. My work details the synthesis of a series of PEUs possessing a variation in diol chain length, in branch density, in filler content and studies how these subtle structural differences influence the mechanical properties and in vitro biodegradation rates. The results show that the elastic moduli covers a wide range of values from 0.5 GPa – 3.1 GPa which overlap with several currently clinically available biodegradable polymers. The amount of degradation varies from 1% – 5% over 16 weeks. Compared with poly(L-lactic acid), PEUs degrade more quickly and the rate can be tuned by changing the diol chain length, branch density and filler content. Based on these tunable physical properties, these materials can be selected, processed into different forms (extruded/injection molded tubes, 3D printed scaffolds, electrospun nanofiber sheets/tubes, etc.) and used as orthopedic materials, shape memory materials, tissue adhesives and wound dressing materials.

Structure-property-processing-application relationship of amino acid-based poly(ester urea)s

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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