A porous Cu/LDPE composite for copper-containing intrauterine contraceptive devices

作者：Zhang, Weiwei; Xia, Xianping^*; Qi, Cheng; Xie, Changsheng; Cai, Shuizhou

来源：Acta Biomaterialia, 2012, 8(2): 897-903.

DOI：10.1016/j.actbio.2011.09.024

• Porous Cu/LDPE composite
• DTBHQ
• Ethyl acetate
• Injection molding and particulate leaching
• Cupric ion release

To improve the rates of both cupric ion release and the utilization of copper in non-porous copper/low-density polyethylene (Cu/LDPE) composite, a porous Cu/LDPE composite is proposed and developed in the present work. Here 2,5-di-tert-butylhydroquinone was chosen as the porogen, ethyl acetate was chosen as the solvent for extraction, and the porous Cu/LDPE composite was obtained by using injection molding and the particulate leaching method. After any residual ethyl acetate remaining inside the porous Cu/LDPE composite had been removed by vacuum drying, the composite was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and absorption measurement. For comparison, a non-porous Cu/LDPE composite was also characterized in the same way. The results show that the porous structure was successfully introduced into the polymeric base of the non-porous Cu/LDPE composite, and the porous Cu/LDPE composite is a simple hybrid of copper particles and porous LDPE. The results also show that the introduction of a porous structure can improve the cupric ion release rate of the non-porous Cu/LDPE composite with a certain content of copper particles, indicating that the utilization rate of copper can be improved either the introduction of a porous structure, and that the porous Cu/LDPE composite is another promising material for copper-containing intrauterine devices.

• 出版日期2012-2
• 单位华中科技大学