Development of Biodegradable Aliphatic-Aromatic Copolyesters

Since aromatic polyesters turned out to be quite resistant to hydrolytic degradation under physiological conditions a number of attempts were made to implant structures open to biological attack in such polyesters. This was predominately done by introducing aliphatic acid components in the aromatic polyester chains [7]. 

The first papers published on the biological degradation of aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters came to the conclusion that only at a quite high fraction of aliphatic monomers did the 

Aromatic polymer Aliphatic component Mode of degradation Refs. 

PET PBT PEIP(1981) e-Caprolactone Hydrolysis with lipase from Rhizopus arrhizus in buffer at 37 C [4, 8, 11] 

PET (1993) L-Lactic acid, oxyethylene diols Hydrolysis in buffer at 60 C [20] 

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Table 10.2 History of the development of biodegradable aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters ...

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