Polymer degradation study

Each 5 mm × 5 mm in size was cut and weighed to find their initial mass to measure the degradability of POMC and POC polymers. The polymers were placed in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) at pH 7.4 and incubated at 37 °C for 12 days. The buffer was added every two days to maintain a constant pH of 7.4. At the desired time, the samples were washed in de-ionized water, dried at ambient temperature, and weighed to find their mass. According to Fig. 4, the results showed that during 12 days, polymer POC and POMC lost 27% and 22% of their polymer mass, respectively. The results demonstrated that the core and cladding polymer exhibit consistent degradation rates over the course of 12 days. This implies that they disintegrate simultaneously within the biological environment. Additionally, an NaOH solution was utilized in the investigation to hasten the degradation process. The polymers were placed in 0.1 M NaOH solution and maintained at 37 °C for 12 h.

In-vitro degradation of POMC and POC in PBS (pH 7.4, 37◦C).