Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Butyl Rubber-Aliphatic Polyester Graft Copolymers For Biomedical Applications: Synthesis And Analysis Of Chemical, Physical And Biological Properties, Bethany A. Turowec

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Biomaterials can be used in a wide variety of medical applications owing to their breadth of characteristics that can be imparted by varying their chemical structures. Butyl rubber (IIR), which is a copolymer of isobutylene (IB) and small percentages of isoprene (IP), is particularly attractive as a biomaterial because of its elastomeric mechanical properties, biocompatibility, impermeability and high damping characteristics. IIR is typically vulcanized through chemical-based crosslinking mechanisms. However, these methods are not acceptable for biological applications. This thesis focuses on the synthesis of IIR-polyester graft copolymers by grafting biodegradable and biocompatible polyesters including poly(caprolactone) (PCL) and poly(d,l-lactide) (PDLLA) to …