Tissue engineered scaffolds are being developed as treatment options for malfunctioning tissues throughout the body. It is essential that the scaffold is a close mimic of the native tissue with regards to both mechanical and biological functionalities. Therefore, the production of elastic scaffolds is of key importance to fabricate tissue engineered scaffolds of the elastic tissues such as heart valves and blood vessels. Combining naturally derived and synthetic materials to reach this goal proves to be an interesting area where a highly tunable material that unites mechanical and biological functionalities can be obtained.

Elucidating the mechanism of the cationic ring-opening polymerization of dioxolane using gel permeation chromatography, matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry and 31P NMR.