A biomedical library of serinol-derived polyesters

Polyesters derived from glycerol and serinol were prepared. These polyesters were designed to be potential surrogate polymers for poly(glycolic acid) (PGA) to extend the properties that aliphatic biomedical polyesters could encompass. The 1- and 2-substituted glycerol derived monomers were liquids and difficult to polymerize reproducibly. In contrast the N-substituted serinol monomers were solids and easy to prepare. Each of the four N-substituted serinol-diol monomers was polymerized in a parallel fashion with each of the four commercially available diacids to produce a small library of 16 polyesters. Glass transition and contact angle values were determined to ascertain structure-property correlations due to defined chemical changes in the polymer mainchain and pendent chain. A serinol-derived precursor polymer was also prepared.