Dimethyltitanocene-induced surface chemical degradation of synthetic biodegradable polyesters

The purpose of this research was to selectively alter the rate of surface degradation of linear aliphatic polyesters without adversely affecting their bulk properties by way of functional group transformation, where the surface ester linkages would be converted to vinyl ether functionalities with dimethyltitanocene. It has been observed that dimethyl titanocene causes surface degradation of poly (glycolic acid) without adversely affecting its bulk properties, such as M_v, bursting strength, and thermal properties The vinvl ether resulting from the conversion of the PGA ester groups was unstable under ambient conditions, and further reacted by polymer chain scissioning, as was observed from measurements of molecular weight. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.