CHARACTERIZATION OF 2 BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS OF POTENTIAL APPLICATIONWITHIN THE BIOMATERIALS FIELD

An extensive characterization of two biodegradable polymers that may c onstitute an alternative, if one is aiming at orthopaedic applications , to the currently used poly(glicolic acid), poly(lactic acid) or poly hydroxybutyrate was carried out. A cellulose acetate and three differe nt grades of a novel starch based polymer were studied. The characteri zation included: tensile and instrumented impact tests, theological me asurements, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD ), Fourier transformed infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), differential sca nning calorimetry (DSC), and long-term degradation trials in Hank's so lution. The results show that both polymers, specially the starch base d one, present a great potential for biomedical applications, on which adequate mechanical properties associated to a controlled degradation rate are required.