Elastomeric hydrolyzable porous scaffolds: copolymers of aliphatic polyesters and a polyether-ester

Porous scaffolds of 1,5-dioxepan-2-one (DXO), L-lactide (LLA), and epsilon-caprolactone (CL) were prepared by a solvent casting, salt particulate leaching technique in which the composites were detached from their mold using a novel methanol swelling procedure. By incorporating DXO segments into polymers containing LLA or CL, an increase in hydrophilicity is achieved, and incorporating soft amorphous domains in the crystalline sections enables tailoring of the mechanical properties. The porosities of the scaffolds ranged from 89.2% to 94.6%, and the pores were shown to be interconnected. The materials were synthesized by bulk copolymerization of 1,5-dioxepan-2-one (DXO), L-lactide (LLA), and epsilon-caprolactone (CL) using stannous 2-ethylhexanoate as catalyst. The copolymers formed varied in structure; poly(DXO-co-CL) is random in its arrangement, whereas poly(DXO-co-LLA) and poly(LLA-co-CL) are more blocky in their structures.