The development of bioabsorbable hydrogels on the basis of polyester grafted poly(vinyl alcohol)

TL;DRAbstract

The present work describes the synthesis and characterization of amorphous and covalently crosslinked polymer systems based on poly(vinyl alcohol) and polyesters. The hydrogels prepared are biocompatible and hydrolytically degradable. The macroscopic properties, primarily the degradation rate, mass loss, water uptake, mechanical properties of the hydrogels can be tailored by variation of the polyester composition and the network structure. Covalently crossliked polymer networks were synthesized via a three step reaction. Short polyester chains were initially prepared by ring opening polymerization of lactide and glycolide. Hydroxyethyl methacrylate was used as an initiator which enables the simultaneous introduction of double bonds into the system. In the second step the hydroxy end groups of the polyesters were transferred into carboxylic groups by reaction with succinic anhydride. The third step was the grafting of the polyester chains onto the poly(vinyl alcohol) chain. Finally, cro

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