2021 Annual Meeting
Assessing Self-Nucleation to Promote Minority Block Crystallization in Poly(ethylene oxide)-b-Poly(?-caprolactone) to Control Degradation Rates for Drug Delivery
PCL is used in drug delivery, however, the degradation rate is too slow for it to be truly effective. When PEO is added to PCL, it enhances the degradation process. PEO and PCL are both crystalline materials, and the crystallinity affects the degradation properties. This study evaluated self-nucleation temperature changes for PEO-b-PCL This was accomplished by using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) to observe the crystallization temperatures of samples with different weight fractions and solvent casting techniques. It was found that both have an effect on the self-nucleation properties of PEO-b-PCL. Going forward, identification of crystallization order after self-nucleation is critical to understanding the crystallinity of these samples.