Optical monitoring the degradation of PLGA inverse opal film

Implantable materials have broad applications in tissue engineering and in vivo sensors. It is essential to know the detailed information of the implantable materials during their degradation. In this paper, we developed a method to monitor the degradation process of a well-used biomaterial, poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) by taking advantage of inverse opal structure. We found that mass loss, molecular weight and glass transition temperature of PLGA during the degradation process in Hank's artificial body fluid can be in situ monitored by measuring the optical properties of PLGA inverse opal.

Graphical abstractPLGA inverse opal films at different degradation stages were monitored with reflection spectrum changes.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide