PREPARATION AND PROPERTIES OF ABSORBABLE FIBERS FROM L-LACTIDE COPOLYMERS

Absorbable fibres have been prepared from various copolymers Of L-lactide with either D-lactide or epsilon-caprolactone. The lower crystallinity of these copolymers, compared with the homopolymer, is desirable in the light of their potential use as an absorbable suture material and has a pronounced effect on both preparation procedure and mechanical properties of these fibres. Due to the low crystallinity of the fibres, their mechanical properties are related to the structure of the amorphous phase, as is reflected by the effect of the glass transition temperature and molecular weight on tensile properties. By means of a dry spinning/hot drawing process, low crystalline fibres having strengths of 1 GPa could be prepared, whereas fibres prepared by melt spinning/hot drawing have strengths ranging from 0.19 for a completely amorphous copolymer to 0.53 GPa for the poly(L-lactide) homopolymer.