Amorphous Linear Aliphatic Polyesters for the Facile Preparation of Tunable Rapidly Degrading Elastomeric Devices and Delivery Vectors

A versatile method for preparing amorphous degradable elastomers with tunable properties that can be easily fabricated into a wide variety of shape-specific devices was investigated. Completely amorphous, liquid poly(ester ether) prepolymers with number-average molecular weights between 4 and 6 x 10(3) g/mol were prepared via condensation polymerization. These liquid prepolymers were then thermally cross-linked to form degradable elastomeric structures. The ability to vary the composition of these liquid prepolymers allows for easy control of the mechanical and degradation properties of the resulting elastomeric structures. Materials can be designed to completely degrade in vitro over a range of 30 days to 6 months, while the Young's modulus can be varied over 3 orders of magnitude (G = 0.02-20 MPa). Also, the liquid nature of these prepolymers makes them amenable to a wide variety of fabrication techniques. Using traditional and modified imprint lithography techniques, we have fabricated devices that demonstrate a wide variety of biologically applicable topologies, which could easily be extended to fabricate devices with more complex geometries. Until now, no method has combined this ease and speed of fabrication with the ability to control the mechanical and degradation properties of the resulting elastomers over such a broad range.