Novel platform for visualization monitoring of hydrolytic degradation of bio-degradable polymers based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) technique

Although lots of works have been done on the hydrolysis of synthetic biodegradable polymers, the methods for monitoring the degradation process still suffer from some disadvantages, especially in terms of detection speed and non-invasive manners. In this work, a fast, non-invasive visualization monitoring platform was developed for hydrolytic degradation of bio-degradable polymers based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) technique. We synthesized and introduced an amphiphilic AIE probe to the commercial polylactide (PLA) matrix through a simple co-precipitation process. Amphiphilic AIE probes gradually entered the aqueous media during the hydrolytic degradation process of PLA matrix, which exhibited fluorescence evolution. The variation of fluorescence emission corresponding to the evolution of PLA mass loss could be easily observed by naked eyes. Compared to traditional characterization techniques based on mass loss and molar mass measurements by sampling, this method is sensitive, fast and non-invasive, and has the potential to become a standard method for commercial bio-degradable product testing.