Stronger and faster degradable biobased poly(propylene sebacate) as shape memory polymer by incorporating boehmite nanoplatelets

Boehmite (BM) nanoplatelets were adopted to compound with fully biobased poly(propylene sebacate) (PPSe) to form the shape memory composites. The PPSe/BM composites kept excellent shape memory properties as previously reported PPSe. Compared to neat PPSe, the composites possess much higher mechanical properties above the melting point and faster biodegradation rate, which was demonstrated via tensile test at elevated temperature and in vitro degradation experiments in phosphate buffer saline (PBS), respectively. The obviously improved mechanical properties at elevated temperature are attributed to the uniform dispersion of the reinforcing boehmite nanoplatelets, which was facilitated by the interfacial interaction between BM and PPSe as revealed by FTIR, XPS, and XRD results. The faster degradation is correlated to accelerated hydrolysis by basic boehmite with surface aluminols. The potential biocompatibility, as substantiated by the outstanding cell viability and cell attachment, together with the realization of transformation temperature close to body temperature makes the PPSe/BM composites suitable for the biomedical applications, such as stents, in human body.