## 3 Results
### Calorimetric Characterization  
DSC scans were performed in order to compare thermal properties of ultrasound micromolded pieces and melt crystallized samples, and also to study the influence of the loaded drug in the thermal properties. Figure 9 compares the DSC runs obtained directly from micromolded pieces (Figure 9a) and those registered from samples after being cooled (10 \({}^{\circ}\)C/min) from the melt state (Figure 9b). The main characteristics are the following:  
1. Specimens prepared by ultrasound micromolding showed relaxation endothermic overshoots over \(T_{g}\), which indicated that the heating rate in DSC scan was higher than the previous cooling rate during glass formation. The observed peaks are complex but were minimized in the second heating run. It should be pointed out that relaxation peaks were not associated with a potential fusion of loaded drugs (55 \({}^{\circ}\)C for TCS and 134 \({}^{\circ}\)C for CHX) since they were also detected for unloaded PLA. 2. All samples showed exothermic cold crystallization peaks, which were higher for the micromolded specimens as a consequence of their higher amorphous content. The associated enthalpy clearly increased also when drugs were loaded and even were split into two peaks for loads around 6 wt-%. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Drug \%-wt**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Chlorhexidine**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Triclosan**} \\ \cline{2-5}  & **Elongation at** & **Young Modulus** & **Elongation at** & **Young Modulus** \\  & **Break (\%)** & **(MPa)** & **Break (\%)** & **(MPa)** \\ \hline
0 & \(9.13\pm 1.4\) & \(1565\pm 127\) & \(9.13\pm 1.4\) & \(1565\pm 130\) \\
0.5 & \(8.19\pm 1.0\) & \(1456\pm 145\) & \(9.11\pm 1.0\) & \(1558\pm 120\) \\
1 & \(8.35\pm 0.9\) & \(1416\pm 264\) & \(9.61\pm 0.8\) & \(1510\pm 135\) \\
1.5 & \(8.03\pm 1.3\) & \(1414\pm 161\) & \(9.95\pm 0.5\) & \(1445\pm 190\) \\
2 & \(7.26\pm 1.1\) & \(1401\pm 132\) & \(10.01\pm 0.7\) & \(1411\pm 160\) \\
2.5 & \(6.09\pm 1.3\) & \(1357\pm 161\) & \(10.19\pm 0.8\) & \(1393\pm 110\) \\
3 & \(5.33\pm 0.8\) & \(1243\pm 152\) & \(10.21\pm 0.6\) & \(1388\pm 170\) \\
4 & \(4.97\pm 1.0\) & \(1145\pm 139\) & \(10.50\pm 0.4\) & \(1380\pm 140\) \\
6 & \(4.34\pm 0.7\) & \(1146\pm 120\) & \(10.62\pm 0.4\) & \(1383\pm 150\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Mechanical parameters extracted from stress–strain assays. Figure 8: SEM micrographs of a PLA specimen loaded with 6 wt-% of TCS (**left**) and CHX (**right**) molded at 24-300-1.2 condition. 3. The melting process was similar for all PLA samples and those loaded with 3 wt-% of CHX. This fusion was characterized by a complex melting peak with a shoulder at 164 \({}^{\circ}\)C and a main peak at 170 \({}^{\circ}\)C as it is well described. The melting enthalpy was also comparable, indicating that a similar degree of crystallinity was achieved after cold crystallization. Nevertheless, the second heating run of the sample loaded with 6 wt-% of CHX showed a melting peak with a clearly lower enthalpy (i.e., 21.65 J/g with respect to 38.09 J/g measured for the melt crystallized PLA sample), lower melting peak temperature (157 \({}^{\circ}\)C with respect to 168-170 \({}^{\circ}\)C) and a higher temperature for the cold crystallization peak (i.e., 125 \({}^{\circ}\)C with respect to 114-118 \({}^{\circ}\)C). The different behavior of such sample is in agreement with the above-mentioned degradation process that should be maximum at the end of the second heating run due to the considerable exposure to high temperatures (i.e., during the performed heating and cooling runs) and also demonstrates the clear loss of properties. Thermogravimetric analyses were also carried out to see the influence of the loaded drugs on the thermal stability of processed samples.