Synthetic polymers containing ester bond

Tokiwa, Y. Ando, T. Suziki, T. Takeda, K. Biodegradation of Synthetic Polymers Containing Ester Bonds in Agricultural and Synthetic Polymers, Biodegradability and Utilization Glass, J. E. Swift, G. (Eds.) ACS Symposium Series 433 ACS Washington, DC 1990. 

Tokiwa V, Ando T, Suzuki T and Takedo T (1990) Biodegradation of synthetic polymers containing ester bonds, Polym Mater Sci Eng 62 988-992. 

Polyester is a general term referring to any polymer where the monomers are linked by ester bonds and includes the biodegradable microbially derived polyhydroxyalkanoates, which, as they are naturally produced, are beyond the scope of this article (for a review see Kim Rhee, 2003). Most synthetic polyesters in large-scale use are the aromatic poly(ethylene tetraphthalate) or poly(butylene tetraphthalate) polyesters as they have excellent material properties and are used in a wide range of applications including plastic containers, fibres for synthetic fabrics, films... 

Summary During the last few years intense research has been focussed on the elaboration of synthetic materials [1-4] based on modified silicon esters. Products with interesting properties were formed by synthesis of a novel group of derived silicon esters. The condensation of carbonyl- and amino groups leads to organotrialkoxysilanes containing azomethine bonds. From these compounds three-dimensional, cross-linked silicon polymers were synthesized by hydrolysis/condensation. 

Poly(a-ester)s, the most expansively studied class of biodegradable polymer, contain aliphatic ester linkages in their backbone which can be cleaved hydrolytically. It is reported that mere aliphatic polyesters with practically small aliphatic chains between ester bonds can decompose over the time needed for the majority of the biomedical applications. Poly(a-ester)s demonstrate enormous diversity and synthetic flexibility and, depending on the monomeric units, can be synthesized from a variety of monomers via condensation polymerization and ring-opening routes [19]. Poly(glycolic acid) and the stereoisomers of poly(lactic acid) are the most expansively investigated poly(a-ester)s polymers. 

Enzymes which catalyze the hydrolysis of the unit linkage of sequential residues of oligomers or polymers determine their substrate specificity by recognizing the particular unit residue in the sequential chain as well as the direction of the chain. For example, ribonuclease cleaves the 3 -phosphate of a pyrimidine nucleotide residue but not the 5 -phosphate, and trypsin hydrolyzes peptide bonds which involve the arginine or lysine residue at the carbonyl end but not at the amino end. This is also the case for the hydrolysis of a variety of synthetic substrates and quasi-substrates (Sect. 4.1). Synthetic trypsin substrates are ester or amide derivatives in which the site-specific group (positive charge) is contained in their carbonyl portion. 

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