Modelling degradation of amorphous biodegradable polyesters: Basic model 

 -  Modelling Degradation of Bioresorbable Polymeric Medical Devices, p.15-31, 2014 .
<br/><br/> This chapter introduces a mathematical model for the degradation of amorphous polymers. A degrading polymer is made of long and short polymer chains saturated with water molecules. In degradation the long chains gradually cleave into short ones through hydrolysis. A master equation is presented that governs the process. Integration of the equation gives average molecular weight as function of time. Analytical solutions are presented for two limiting cases. A numerical method and computer programme are provided for solving the equation in general circumstances. Short chain diffusion is neglected (see Chapter 6 for the validity of this assumption). © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 
<br/><br/><label>Subjects--Topical Terms: </label><br/>AMORPHOUS POLYMERS<br/>BIODEGRADABLE POLYMER<br/>HYDROLYSIS REACTION<br/>MATHEMATICAL MODEL<br/>MOLECULAR WEIGHT<br/>NUMERICAL METHOD<br/>POLYMER DEGRADATION