Preparation of biodegradable poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) graft copolymer

Excerpt

The research on degradable plastics, especially that of biodegradability has become one of the focuses of advanced material researching. Bacterial poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is well known as thermoplastic aliphatic polyester. It has many advantages such as biodegradability, biocompatibility and optical activity [1]. Moreover PHB exhibits thermoplastic behavior and can be processed by traditional processing such as extrusion and injection moulding [2]. As it is a truly biodegradable and excellent biocompatible material, it is suitable for many promising applications: one is as a viable candidate for relieving environment concerns caused by disposal of non-degradable plastic [3]; the other is to provide biomedical material used in biomedical field such as surgical sutures, long term carriers of drugs and tissue engineering [4]. Unfortunately PHB is rather fragile, hydrophobic and for application in which a biodegradable material is required, its degradation time is too long. …