Enhanced Mechanical Strength, Flexibility, and Shape-Restoring Rate of a Drug-Eluting Shape-Memory Polymer by Incorporation of Supramolecular Cross-Linkers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop mechanically robust soybean oil and polycaprolactone (PC)-based drug-eluting shape memory polymers (SMPs) containing polyrotaxane (PRX) cross-linkers. Essentially, the dynamic PRX cross-linker-containing methacrylate group is introduced to increase the cross-linking density and flexibility of the SMP to overcome its mechanical limitations. It was confirmed that the elongation and cross-linking density of the PRX-incorporated SMP were increased by 2-4 times compared to neat SMP. In addition, those high mechanical properties of the PRX-incorporated SMP could be maintained after the degradation of the PC by the drug-eluting process.