Polylactide block copolymers using trimethylene carbonate with methoxyethoxy side groups for dual modification of hydrophilicity and biodegradability.

Novel block copolymers using the monomers 5-(2-methoxyethyoxymethyl)-5-methyl-[1,3]-dioxa-2-one (TMCM-MOE1OM) as a hydrophilic segment and lactides as a hydrophobic segment were designed in order to prepare controllable degradation polymers by dynamic polymer rearrangement based on the hydrophilicity. When the copolymer film contacted water, the hydrophobic polylactide (PLA) segments tend to be buried under the TMCM-MOE1OM segments due to the hydrophilicity of the methoxyethoxy groups. The copolymers were hardly degraded by both proteinase K and lipase, while both of their homopolymers, poly(trimethylene carbonate) and PLA, were degraded, which suggests that the rearrangement of the TMCM-MOE1OM segments at the outermost surface significantly improved the degradation ratio.