Polymers from Renewable Resources

From the point of view of making novel polymers with inherent environment-favorable properties such as renewability and degradability, a series of interesting monomers are found in the metabolisms and cycles of nature. This review presents and discusses a number of aliphatic polyesters which show interesting applications as biomedical materials and degradable packages. Available from nature are amino acids, microbial metabolites from the conversion of glucose and other monosaccharides (e.g., acetic acid, acetone, 2,3-butanediol, butyric acid, isopropanol, propionic acid), lactic acid, ethanol and fatty acids. A series of biodegradable polymers with different properties and different potential industrial uses were made starting with succinic acid and/or 1,3-propanediol. There were two routes for making the polyester-based materials; the direct ring-opening polymerization of lactones (cyclic esters) synthesized from 1,3-propanediol, and the chain-extension of α,ω-dihydroxy-terminated oligomeric polyesters produced by thermal polycondensation of 1,3-propanediol and succinic acid (oligo(propylene succinate)s).