Degradation of electrospun poly(L -lactide) membranes under cyclic loading

Because of the great effect of mechanical loads on degradation of biodegradable biomaterials, investigation on degradation of electrospun membranes under dynamic loading is of importance. In this article, degradation of electrospun poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) membranes was carried out in a Tris-HCl buffer solution containing proteinase K under a cyclic stretch loading (dynamic condition) in comparison with that in shaking water bath (static condition). The evolutions of mass loss, morphology, thermal properties, and relative molecular weight of PLLA were monitored during degradation. The results showed that after degradation for 10 h, the mass of the electrospun PLLA membranes dropped by 38.7% and 31.3%, respectively, under dynamic and static conditions. And the electrospun PLLA membranes showed higher value of crystallinity during degradation under both cyclic loading and static condition. In addition, benzyl triethyl ammonium chloride (BTEAC) was introduced during electrospinning, and the effects of electrospun membranes characteristic and crystallinity on degradation were also investigated. The degradation study results are expected to be a basic study in mimicking actually mechanical environments. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 124:258-266, 2012