In this article, a series of medical poly(ester-urethane)s (PEUs) with varying uniform-size hard segment content were prepared via one-step chain extension of poly(ε-caprolactone)s with aliphatic urethane diisocyanate, and the corresponding films were obtained by solvent evaporation technique. The chemical structures of polymers were confirmed by 1H NMR, FT-IR and GPC. The effect of uniform-size hard segment content on the physicochemical properties of PEU films, including thermal properties, mechanical properties, crystallization behavior, water-swelling behavior and in vitro degradability, was extensively researched. The PEU films exhibiting similar thermal transition and thermal stability indicated that the uniform-size hard segment content had little effect on the thermal properties. Two obvious glass transition temperatures observed in DSC curves manifested a microphase separation structure, which endowed the PEU films excellent mechanical properties with ultimate stress of 34.6-51.2 MPa and strain at break of 898-1485%. And with the increase of uniform-size hard segment content, the initial modulus and ultimate stress increased, while the strain at break decreased. Due to the compact physical-linking network structure formed by the denser hydrogen bonds, the PEU films exhibited low water-swellability of less than 1.5 wt% and low degradation rate in vitro. The weight loss of the PEU films in degradation test was less than 1 wt% at the first four months and the time of films becoming fragments was more than 15 months. Cytotoxicity test of film extracts was conducted with L929 mouse fibroblasts, and the relative growth rate approached or exceeded 75%, indicating an acceptable cytocompatibility. For the excellent mechanical properties, slow biodegradability, non-toxic degradation products and adequate cytocompatibility, the PEUs containing uniform-size hard segments possess a high potential to be applied as long-term implant biomaterials.
Keywords: Medical poly(ester-urethane); biodegradability; physicochemical properties; poly(ε-caprolactone); uniform-size hard segment.