Last week, Sanchi Luthra from the University of Twente presented a poster entitled “Polyphosphoester-Polycaprolactone Copolymers: Controlling Microstructures and Hydrolyisis Rates”, co-authored with Timo Rheinberger, Mark Hempenius, Hubert Gojzewski, and Frederik R. Wurm, at the Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering (APME) 2025 Conference in Catania, Italy.
The poster showed the progress made in the development of a biodegradable class of polyphosphoester (PPE)-hydrophobic polycaprolactone (PCL) copolymers by combining PPE with PCL, enabling control over the microstructure and degradation rate of the copolymers. Statistical and block copolymers were studied together to understand the role of architectures on thermal properties and crystalline behaviour with potential applications as emulsion stabilisers.
A versatile and biodegradable class of polymers, PPEs have been explored in copolymerisation to control microstructures and adjust hydrolytic degradation due to the precisely controlled binding motif around the phosphorus centre. They are interesting in applications such as flame retardants, surfactants, coatings, batteries, and drug delivery. Until now, cyclic phosphoester monomers (phospholanes) have been copolymerised with lactide, trimethylene carbonates, but no effort has been made to compare the statistical and block copolymer microstructures together with ε-caprolactone to date—a semi-crystalline copolymer using PCL segments.
