Release kinetics of oleyl alcohol from a self-lubricating silicone biomaterial

Abstract

The development of self-lubricating silicone elastomeric biomaterials, prepared using the novel crosslinking agent tetra(oleyloxy)silane and having very low coefficients of friction, has recently been reported. In this study, the in vitro release characteristics of lubricious oleyl alcohol produced during the silicone curing reaction have been quantitatively evaluated for a range of tetra(propoxy)silane/tetra(oleyloxy)silane crosslinker compositions using a novel evaporative light scattering detection method in combination with high performance liquid chromatography. The mechanism of oleyl alcohol release was seen to deviate from a simple, matrix-controlled diffusion process and instead obeyed an anomalous transport mechanism. An explanation for the observed release behaviour has been proposed based on competitive reaction kinetics between the tetra(oleyloxy)silane and tetra(propoxy)silane substituents of the silicone crosslinking agents.