A Multiscale Mixture Model for Polymer Degradation and Erosion

Over the last 50 years, biodegradable materials have found a wide variety of applications in the medical field ranging from biodegradable sutures, pins and screws for orthopedic surgery, implants for local drug delivery, tissue engineering scaffolds, and biodegradable endovascular and urethral stents. The ability to predict the evolution of biodegradable polymers over the course of degradation would enhance the biodegradable implant design process. Polymer degradation is the irreversible chain scission process that breaks polymer chains down to oligomers and finally monomers. Extensive degradation leads to erosion, which is the process of material loss from the polymer bulk. Such materials can be monomers, oligomers, parts of the polymer backbone, or even parts of the polymer bulk. Hence, degradation and erosion are distinct but related process.