Helmholtz-zentrum Hereon Gmbh

Quanchao Zhang

Andreas Lendlein

Karl Kratz

Axel Thomas Neffe

Paul Jakob Hommes-Schattmann

A polymer blend is provided, comprising or consisting of: (A) a first polymer component, being a copolymer having a substantially random, partially blocky structure and selected from poly[(L-lactide)-co-(&#xa3;-caprolactone)] and poly[(D-lactide)-co-(&#xa3;-caprolactone)] and (B) a second polymer component different from the first polymer component (A) selected from poly(L-lactide), poly(D-lactide), poly[(L-lactide)-co-(&#xa3;-caprolactone)] and poly[(D-lactide)-co-(&#xa3;-caprolactone)], wherein the first and second polymer components (A) and (B) are selected such that the resulting polymer blend comprises a combination of constitution units derived from L-lactide and constitution units derived from D-lactide. The highly elastic material may be processed by electrospinning to produce elastic porous objects having a non-woven fibrous structure.

Highly elastic lactide-based polymer blend, object made from the polymer blend and method of producing the object

The invention provides a surface-functionalised polymeric object (), comprising: a bulk material () comprising a copolymer containing constitution units derived from a first comonomer and constitution units derived from a second comonomer, the first comonomer being selected from L-lactide and D-lactide and forming sequences of oligo(L-lactide) or oligo(D-lactide) in the copolymer the copolymer having a substantially random, partially blocky structure with a dyad ratio of (lactide-lactide)-dyads to (lactide-second comonomer)-dyads of at least 2.0:1; and a surface layer () disposed on a surface of the bulk material (), the surface layer () comprising a functionalising species and at least one chain of poly(D-lactide) or of poly(L-lactide) covalently bound to the functionalising species, and at least one chain being different from the oligo(L-lactide) sequences or oligo(D-lactide) sequences contained in the copolymer; wherein the surface layer () is attached to the bulk material () via stereocomplexes formed between the poly(D-lactide) chain(s) of the functionalising species and the oligo(L-lactide) sequences contained in the copolymer or via stereocomplexes formed between the poly(L-lactide) chain(s) of the functionalising species and the oligo(D-lactide) sequences contained in the copolymer, respectively. The surface-functionalised polymeric object can be produced in a one-step procedure by coaxial electrospinning.

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Jiangxi, China

Quanchao Zhang