Synthesis and characterization of poly(ester-urethanes)

Segmented poly(ester-urethanes) (PEUs) based on poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) as a soft segment and a non-aromatic diisocyanate in the hard segment are synthesized as biodegradable materials. In a first part the environmen tal degradation of PCL and its copolymers was investigated. In the later st age of the work the morphology and thermal properties of the segmented poly (ester-urethanes) are studied in respect to the soft segment length, conten t of the hard segment and total molecular weight. It was established that a strain induced crystallization of amorphous poly(ester-urethane) based on the shortest PCL soft segment (M=2000) occurs when the samples from PEU are stretched at room temperature above a certain elongation ratio.