Hydrolytic degradation of POSS-PEG-lactide hybrid hydrogels

A polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS), functionalized with eight arms of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG; MW 400) and then acrylated, was incorporated into a hydrogel network based on triblock copolymers of poly(lactide-b-ethylene glycol-b-lactide) diacrylates using a redox-initiated polymerization. The organic-inorganic hybrid hydrogels so prepared contained the inorganic crosslinker POSS from 1 to 28 wt.%. The degradation properties of the hydrogels in a pH 7.4 phosphate-buffered saline solution at 37 °C were studied using measurements of mass loss, cryogenic SEM, and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. It was found that copolymerization of acrylated 1kPEG-lactide with increasing amounts of POSS created a more porous network which was more resistant to hydrolysis. The ATR-FTIR technique was used to monitor the progress of degradation with exposure time through the changes in the carbonyl and C-H deformation bands of the lactide and the Si-C stretching band of the POSS. Increasing POSS incorporation resulted in decreased rate of degradation due to its hydrophobic nature and inertness to hydrolysis. Conversely, an increase in lactide content increased the degradation rate due to the increased number of hydrolytically-sensitive ester groups in the network.