Degradable Elastomeric Block Copolymers Based on Polycaprolactone by Free‐Radical Chemistry

AbstractNew degradable, transparent, and elastomeric materials based on PCL are reported in this work. These are block copolymers of PCL with a copolymer of MMA and MDO, i.e. P(MMA‐co‐MDO)‐b‐PCL‐b‐P(MMA‐co‐MDO). A PCL‐based macro‐azoinitiator is used for preparing the block copolymers by free‐radical chemistry. The free‐radical copolymerization of MDO with MMA provides CL units distributed randomly on the PMMA backbone of the second block. This provides the advantage of bringing degradability to the whole system. The detailed structural characterization of the new polymers, their properties evaluation like thermal and mechanical are also reported. The materials are degradable, transparent, and elastomeric depending upon the copolymer composition and block length. magnified image