Effect of soft segment chemistry on the biostability of segmented polyurethanes. II. In vitro hydrolytic degradation and lipid sorption.

A series of segmented polyurethanes (SPUs) with various polyol soft segments was prepared and their hydrolytic degradation and degradation due to lipid sorption was investigated. The hydrolytic degradation of the SPUs was investigated in a papain solution, where it was shown that the SPU based on poly(ethyleneoxide) (PEO) soft segment was susceptible to hydrolytic degradation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) data suggest dissociation of the urethane linkage by enzymatic degradation. Degradation by lipid sorption was observed for the SPU based on a poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) soft segment. This is ascribed to the high solubility of lipid in the PDMS segment of the SPU.