Mechanical properties of biodegradable polymers for medical applications

Abstract This chapter presents a review of the mechanical properties of biodegradable polymers and the effects of degradation. The current fundamental theories of elastic and plastic deformation are discussed, and mechanical properties including stiffness, strength, and elongation-at-break are considered in relation to specific experimental examples from the literature. The effects of molecular weight and crystallinity, which both vary greatly during degradation, are analysed. A simple linear relationship between Young’s modulus and log( M n ) is found to fit to a large number of experimental data sets from the literature. Three existing theoretical studies for the degradation of mechanical properties are also reviewed.