Polycaprolactone (PCL) has become the most widely studied biodegradable polymer over the past 100 years. Central to this utility is its semicrystalline nature. Crystallinity is among the most important fundamental properties in materials science. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is routinely used to evaluate polymer crystallinity. This requires the use of reference data for the melting enthalpy of the hypothetical entirely crystalline polymer. These data have been acquired, by necessity, using extrapolation techniques and are variably reported for PCL. The scientific community would benefit from revisiting methods to obtain objective reference values to avoid inaccuracies and compromised data sets. Here we present proposed methodologies in this direction, based on current literature, along with perspectives on the importance of this topic for the greater research community.

过去 100 年来，聚己内酯 (PCL) 已成为研究最广泛的可生物降解聚合物。这种实用性的核心是它的半结晶性质。结晶度是材料科学中最重要的基本性质之一。差示扫描量热法（DSC）通常用于评估聚合物结晶度。这需要使用假设的完全结晶聚合物的熔化焓的参考数据。这些数据是根据需要使用外推技术获得的，并且针对 PCL 进行了不同的报告。科学界将受益于重新审视方法以获得客观参考值，以避免数据集不准确和受损。在这里，我们根据当前的文献提出了这个方向提出的方法，以及该主题对更大的研究界的重要性的观点。