Yin Yanji, Wang Xiaotong, Zhang Jiayan, Wang Wenyan, Han Rui
Key Laboratory of Materials and Surface Technology (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Air-Ground Integration Vehicle and Control, Xihua University, Chengdu 610039, China.
Polymers (Basel). 2025 Mar 21;17(7):834. doi: 10.3390/polym17070834.
Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a widely used polymer in biomedical applications due to its excellent processability, ductility, and biodegradability. However, single-component PCL devices often fail to meet the multifunctional and high-performance demands of modern biomedical devices. In this study, we introduced biodegradable and environmentally friendly cyclodextrin (CD) to fabricate CD inclusion complexes with low-molecular-weight polycaprolactone (LPCL). These complexes were incorporated into commercial PCL to prepare the resulting composites. The effects of PCL molecular weight and CD type on the properties and inclusion ratios of the complexes were systematically investigated. Among the tested complexes, the one formed with LPCL (Mw = 8 × 10) and α-CD exhibited the highest inclusion ratio (2:1), significantly enhancing the crystallization and mechanical properties of the resulting composite (PCL/8-α-CD). Compared to pure PCL, the PCL/8-α-CD composite shows a 14.8% increase in crystallinity, along with improvements of 63.6% and 30.9% in tensile strength and elongation at break, respectively. These results demonstrate that the incorporation of CD inclusion complexes can effectively enhance the mechanical performance of PCL, making it a promising candidate for high-performance biomedical applications.
聚己内酯（PCL）因其优异的加工性能、延展性和生物可降解性，在生物医学应用中是一种广泛使用的聚合物。然而，单一组分的PCL装置往往无法满足现代生物医学装置的多功能和高性能要求。在本研究中，我们引入了可生物降解且环保的环糊精（CD），以制备与低分子量聚己内酯（LPCL）的CD包合物。这些包合物被掺入商用PCL中以制备所得复合材料。系统地研究了PCL分子量和CD类型对包合物的性质和包合比的影响。在测试的包合物中，由LPCL（Mw = 8 × 10）和α-CD形成的包合物表现出最高的包合比（2:1），显著提高了所得复合材料（PCL/8-α-CD）的结晶和机械性能。与纯PCL相比，PCL/8-α-CD复合材料的结晶度提高了14.8%，拉伸强度和断裂伸长率分别提高了63.6%和30.9%。这些结果表明，掺入CD包合物可以有效地提高PCL的机械性能，使其成为高性能生物医学应用的有前途的候选材料。
