Poly(glycolic acid) (PGA) is an aliphatic polyester with the simplest chemical structure. Since PGA is susceptible to hydrolysis, various researchers studied the factors affecting the hydrolytic degradation behavior of PGA. The factors include the higher-order structure, pH, ionic electrolyte etc. In this study, to clarify the mechanism for the hydrolysis of PGA fibers, effect of the carboxylic acid content on the hydrolytic degradation behavior was investigated through the quantitative evaluation of the amounts of the carboxylic acid end group and the PGA monomer (glycolide, GL) in the fibers. Evaluation of the hydrolysis of PGA fibers through the analyses of the molecular weight retention and tensile strength retention after immersing in the phosphate buffer solution at 37 °C revealed that the hydrolysis is governed by the carboxylic acid content in the PGA fibers. It was also found that the amount of GL generated during the melt spinning process is affected by the amount and type of polymerization catalyst. In addition, the experimental results of fundamental analysis suggested that the polymerization catalyst also decomposes the GL into glycolic acid or glycolic acid dimers to generate carboxylic acid, and the rate of decomposition varies depending on the type and amount of catalyst. Based on these results, it was concluded that there is an indirect effect of the type and amount of polymerizing catalyst on the rate of hydrolysis of PGA fibers.

聚乙醇酸（PGA）是具有最简单化学结构的脂肪族聚酯。由于PGA易于水解，因此许多研究人员研究了影响PGA水解降解行为的因素。这些因素包括高阶结构，pH值，离子电解质等。在本研究中，为了阐明PGA纤维的水解机理，通过定量评估其含量对羧酸含量对水解降解行为的影响进行了研究。纤维中羧酸端基和PGA单体（乙交酯，GL​​）的含量。通过分析在37°C下浸入磷酸盐缓冲溶液后的分子量保持率和拉伸强度保持率，可以评估PGA纤维的水解情况，结果表明该水解作用受PGA纤维中羧酸含量的支配。还发现在熔融纺丝过程中产生的GL的量受聚合催化剂的量和类型的影响。另外，基础分析的实验结果表明，聚合催化剂也将GL分解为乙醇酸或乙醇酸二聚体以生成羧酸，并且分解速率根据催化剂的类型和量而变化。根据这些结果，