Thin Film Elastic Modulus of Degradable Tyrosine-Derived Polycarbonate Biomaterials and Their Blends

Abstract

The integrity, function, and performance of biomedical devices having thin polymeric coatings are critically dependent on the mechanical properties of the film, including the elastic modulus. In this report, the elastic moduli of several tyrosine-derived polycarbonate thin films, specifically desaminotyrosyl ethyl tyrosine polycarbonates p(DTE carbonate), an iodinated derivative p(I 2 -DTE carbonate), and several discrete blends are measured using a method based on surface wrinkling. The data shows that the elastic modulus does not vary significantly with the blend composition as the weight percentage of p(I 2 -DTE carbonate) increases for films of uniform thickness in the range of 67 to 200 nm. As a function of film thickness, the observed elastic moduli of p(DTE carbonate), p(I 2 -DTE carbonate) and their 50:50 by mass blend show little variation over the range 30 to 200 nm.

Impact of Polymer-Bound Iodine on Fibronectin Adsorption and Osteoblast Cell Morphology in Radiopaque Medical Polymers: Tyrosine-Derived Polycarbonate Blends as a Model System

“…8 While the mechanical properties (stiffness) of the substrates have been shown to play an important role on directing cell phenotype, 38 the elastic modulus of poly(DTE carbonate), poly(I 2 -DTE carbonate) and their blends were previously characterized by wrinkling based metrology (1.0 to 2.0 GPa) and this moduli range imparts glassy solid behavior and exists outside the moduli range (1 to 100 kPa) that was reported to impact cell morphological and phonotypical behavior. 38,39 Composition remains the only variable that changes in which the amount of poly(I 2 -DTE carbonate) polymer was progressively increased in the blend series. As XPS data indicated, the films surface compositions (≈10 nm depth) agree with the starting solution bulk composition and indicate proportional increases in iodine content.…”

Prediction and analysis of flow behavior of a polymer melt through nanochannels using artificial neural network and statistical methods

“…On the other hand, a value of F [ 4 generally suggests that the effect of the independent variable is quite significant. ANOVA and ANOM have extensively been used in the research works (Moghe et al 2009;Aamer et al 2009;Yoo et al 2009;.…”

Surface Wrinkling: A Versatile Platform for Measuring Thin‐Film Properties

“…Recently, surface wrinkling has also been successfully applied at NIST to degradable tyrosine-derived polycarbonates, which are a class of polymers being investigated for biomedical applications such as arterial stents, hernia meshes, and drug-releasing coatings. [ 81 ] …”