MEDICAL DEVICE EMPLOYING LIQUID CRYSTAL BLOCK COPOLYMERS AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME

• US 20100145269A1
• Filed: 02/16/2010
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc. (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Boston Scientific Scimed, Inc. (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Inventors: Chen, John J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,857,785 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 604/96.10
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 29/049 Mixtures of macromolecular compounds
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 29/126 having a macromolecular matrix
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 25/1027 Making of balloon catheters
• CPC Class Codes: C08L 53/00 Compositions of block copolymers containing at least one sequence of a polymer obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds; Compositions of derivatives of such polymers
• CPC Class Codes: C09K 19/00 Liquid crystal materials
• CPC Class Codes: C09K 19/3809 Polyesters; Polyester derivatives, e.g. polyamides
• CPC Class Codes: C09K 19/3852 Poly(meth)acrylate derivatives
• CPC Class Codes: C09K 19/408 Polysiloxanes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 428/1352 Polymer or resin containing [i.e., natural or synthetic]

Abstract

A medical device, at least a portion of which is formed from a polymer composition including at least one liquid crystal block copolymer having at least one A block and at least one B block wherein the A block is formed of mesogenic repeat units and the B block is a soft block.

Claims

1. An expandable medical balloon, the medical balloon formed from a polymer composition, the polymer composition comprising at least one first polymer and at least one liquid crystal block copolymer having at least one A block and at least one B block and wherein the A block comprises mesogenic repeat units and has a polymer backbone comprising no aliphatic unsaturation;

and the B block is a soft block.

2. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1, said polymer composition comprising about 50% to about 95% of said at least one first polymer and about 5% to about 50% of said at least one liquid crystal block copolymer.

3. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1, said polymer composition comprising about 70% to about 95% of said at least one first polymer and about 5% to about 30% of said at least one liquid crystal block copolymer.

4. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1, said at least one first polymer is a member selected from the group consisting of polyolefins, polyesters, polyethers, polyamides, polyimides, block copolymers comprising at least one polyolefin, polyester, polyether, polyamide, and/or polyimide segment, silicones, and mixtures thereof.

5. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1, said at least one first polymer is a thermoplastic elastomer.

6. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1, said at least one first polymer is a poly(ether-block-amide).

7. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1 wherein the B block of said liquid crystal polymer is aliphatic.

8. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1 wherein said B block is derived from a repeating unit selected from the group consisting of olefins, esters, ethers, amides and siloxanes.

9. The expandable medical balloon of claim 6, said at least one poly(ether-block-amide) has an (AB)_n block copolymer structure wherein the A block is nylon and the B block is polytetramethylene oxide.

10. The expandable medical balloon of claim 9 wherein said B block of said liquid crystal block copolymer comprises amide repeat units or a polytetramethylene oxide structure.

11. The expandable medical balloon of claim 10 wherein said B block is about 50% or less by weight of said liquid crystal block copolymer.

12. The expandable medical balloon of claim 10 wherein said B block is about 30% or less by weight of said liquid crystal block copolymer.

13. The expandable medical balloon of claim 10 wherein said B block is about 10% or less by weight of said liquid crystal block copolymer.

14. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1 wherein said A block of said liquid crystal polymer comprises at least one aromatic group per repeat unit of said A block.

15. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1 wherein said A block of said liquid crystal polymer comprises at least two aromatic groups per repeat unit of said A block.

16. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1 wherein said B block of said liquid crystal polymer is derived from hydrophilic monomer units.

17. The expandable medical balloon of claim 16 wherein said B block of said liquid crystal polymer is derived from at least one hydrophilic monomer unit which is a member selected from the group consisting of short chain aliphatic ethers, diols, dicarboxylic acids containing a metal sulfonate group, and acrylamides.

18. The expandable medical balloon of claim 17 wherein said at least one hydrophilic monomer unit is a member selected from the group consisting of polyethylene oxide glycol, polytetramethylene oxide glycol, N,N-dimethylacrylamide and N-vinylpyrrolidone.

19. The expandable medical balloon of claim 16 wherein said B block of said liquid crystal polymer is derived from at least one member selected from the group consisting of polyalkylene glycol copolymerized with an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid or polyalkylene glycol copolymerized a hydrophilic acrylate.

20. The expandable medical balloon of claim 1 wherein said liquid crystal block copolymer further comprises a C block, the C block is derived from different mesogenic repeat units than those of the A block.