A biodegradable composite material which is produced by polymerizing a mixture of an aqueous dispersion of a natural polymer nanofiber including any one or more of a chitin nanofiber and a cellulose nanofiber, a dicarboxylic acid or a derivative thereof, and a diol. The biodegradable composite material has excellent biodegradable and mechanical properties.

A biodegradable triblock copolymer comprising: an A-B-A′ structure wherein the A and A′ blocks each include polylactide, the B block includes from about 55 to about 100 mole percent of polytrimethylene carbonate and 0 to about 45 mole percent polylactide, and the biodegradable triblock copolymer overall includes from about 15 to about 25 mole percent of the polytrimethylene carbonate and from about 75 to about 85 mole percent of the polylactide. Also provided are compositions and implantable medical devices made therefrom.

The present disclosure belongs to the field of organic synthesis, and particularly relates to a ring-opening polymerization method for a cyclic monomer. A specific solution is that a Lewis acid-base pair is used to catalyze ring-opening polymerization of the cyclic monomer in the presence of an initiator. By using the Lewis acid-base pair as a catalyst, on one hand, a range of a ring-opening polymerization catalyst is widened, and on the other hand, this catalyst achieves a higher catalytic efficiency and is milder in comparison with previously reported strong acid or strong base catalysts. In addition, through a bifunctional activation mechanism, this catalyst system activates the monomer and simultaneously activates the initiator or a chain end, and has the characteristics of high efficiency in comparison with the reported monomer activation mechanism or chain end activation mechanism. By adopting the catalyst, a polyester product with a target molecular weight can be synthesized in a controlled manner as required, with a narrower molecular weight distribution index, a high product yield, a high product conversion rate and no monomer or metal residues.

Various precursor solutions and methods of 3D printing and other additive manufacturing approaches are provided for the manufacture of articles using photocrosslinkable vinyl shape memory polymers. In various aspects, articles are manufactured by a process comprising (i) exposing a precursor solution to an intensity and frequency of light to initiate photo-polymerization of the precursor solution to form a layer of the article; and (ii) repeating step (i) a number of times to form the article in a layer-by-layer approach; wherein the precursor solution comprises a first polymeric precursor comprising a plurality of vinyl terminated side-chains attached thereto. A vinyl-functionalized, photocrosslinkable SMP used as an example herein is a novel variant of a previously disclosed SMP composition, with higher amounts of vinyl functionalization but similar thermomechanical properties to the SMP library previously disclosed. Moreover, a unique combination of chemistries is disclosed that incorporates the aforementioned vinyl-functionalized SMPs along with acrylate-based crosslinkers. Additional novel compositions are disclosed containing the vinyl-functionalized SMPs with additional dithiol functionalizations, vinyl-functionalized SMPs with dithiol crosslinkers, as well as vinyl-functionalized SMPs with both acrylate-based and dithiol crosslinkers, as another means to tune degradation rates and other material properties. The articles can include a variety of articles such as stents, grafts, external sheaths, and the like. Beneficially, the printed articles can include a plurality of pores having an average diameter of about 50 pm to about 5000 pm, about 500 pm to about 2000 pm, or about 1000 pm even in the absence of a photoblocker.

A composition for forming a biodegradable horticultural growing foam includes a vegetable oil-based polyol, an aliphatic isocyanate, an alkyl polyglucoside, a foaming agent including an aqueous metal carbonate solution, and a biomass. Based on 100 parts by weight of the vegetable oil-based polyol, the aliphatic isocyanate, alkyl polyglucoside, aqueous metal carbonate solution, and biomass are respectively present in amounts ranging from 20 to 75 parts by weight, ranging from 2 to 27 parts by weight, ranging from 1 to 6 parts by weight, and of at least 20 parts by weight. A biodegradable horticultural growing foam prepared by the composition is also disclosed.

Certain embodiments comprise administering a residence structure to a subject (e.g., a patient) such that the residence structure is retained at a location internal to the subject for a particular amount of time (e.g., at least about 24 hours) before being released. In certain embodiments, the structure has a modular design, combining a material configured for controlled release of therapeutic, diagnostic, and/or enhancement agents with a structural material necessary for gastric residence but configured for controlled and/or tunable degradation/dissolution to determine the time at which retention shape integrity is lost and the structure passes out of the gastric cavity. For example, in certain embodiments, the residence structure comprises a first elastic component, a second component configured to release an active substance, and, optionally, a linker. In some such embodiments, the linker may be configured to degrade.

This invention relates to the synthesis of multi-block bioresorbable polymers bearing hard and soft polymeric segments. The invention further relates to bioresorbable polymers for shape memory properties. The invention also relates to the use of such polymers as bone filler, vascular closure devices, hemostasis device, aneurysms, mastectomy devices and stent applications. The invention relates also to the use of such polymers for applications in fast degradation applications and 3D printing. The invention also relates to the use of such polymers as drug delivery platforms applications.

In some aspects, the present disclosure pertains to multi-arm polymers that comprise a core, a plurality of polymer segments having a first end that is covalently attached to the core and a second end comprising a moiety that comprises a reactive group, wherein the polymer segments comprise one or more free-radical-polymerizable monomers. In some aspects, systems are provided that comprise a first composition comprising such a multi-arm polymer and a second composition comprising a multifunctional compound that comprises functional groups that are reactive with the reactive groups of the multi-arm polymer. In some aspects, systems are provided that comprise crosslinked reaction products of such a multi-arm polymer and such a multifunctional compound.

The present invention relates to a biodegradable resin composition having improved mechanical properties, formability and weatherproof, and a method for manufacturing the biodegradable resin composition. More specifically, the biodegradable resin composition according to the present invention is obtained by mixing an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid or an acid component comprising a mixture of an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid and an aromatic dicarboxylic acid, and aliphatic diol, and subjecting the mixture sequentially to esterification, transesterification, polycondensation, chain extension and solid-state polymerization reactions in the presence of a polyfunctional compound, and may have improved productivity and economic efficiency due to improved reaction rate, excellent tensile strength, elongation rate and processability. In addition, the biodegradable resin composition according to the present invention is environmentally friendly as it is biodegradable in a natural state when buried.

A method to prepare a polylactic acid-based polymer; the method comprises: —a mixing step, during which lactide monomers, at least one polymerization catalyst and natural origin reactants are mixed together; —a polymerization step, during which the mixture obtained from the previous mixing step is heated at a temperature ranging from 120 to 220° C. in inert atmosphere; and —a cooling step, during which a polymer mass obtained from said polymerization step is cooled down. The natural origin reactants are: (i) a first compound with general formula (I) wherein n ranges from 1 to 20 (ii) a second compound chosen among citric acid, malic acid and derivatives thereof with the carboxylic groups partially or completely in the form of ester or anhydride and with the hydroxyl groups partially or completely in the form of ester.

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