The Effect of Sub- and Near-Critical Carbon Dioxide Assisted Manufacturing on Medical Thermoplastic Polyurethane.

Incorporating thermally labile active pharmaceutical ingredients for manufacturing multifunctional polymeric medical devices is restricted due to their tendency to degrade in the hot melt extrusion process. In this study, the potential of sub- and near-critical carbon dioxide (CO) as a reversible plasticiser was explored by injecting it into a twin-screw hot melt extrusion process of Pellethane thermoplastic polyurethane to decrease its melt process temperature. Its morphological, throughput, thermal, rheological, and mechanical performances were also evaluated.