Synthetic Biodegradable Polymers

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomacromolecules, Biobased and Biodegradable Polymers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2022) | Viewed by 9582

Special Issue Editors

Laboratory for Wear, Testing & Materials, Instituto Pedro Nunes, Rua Pedro Nunes, 3030-199 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: carbon-based systems; thin films; nanocomposites; green synthesis; safe-by-design technologies; recycling materials; renewable energies
CIEPQPF, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Coimbra, 3030-790 Coimbra, Portugal
Interests: polymers; biopolymers; polyesters; unsaturated polyesters; polyurethanes; 3D scaffolds; polymer synthesis; polymer characterization; additive manufacturing; hydrogels; wound dressing; extrusion

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plastics are facing a revolutionary paradigm: although useful in many situations, they are also responsible for one of the biggest pollution problems, both on land and at sea. Microplastics, the degradation products of the plastics, are a major part of the problem, irreversibly damaging ecosystems.

To overcome this growing problem, the scientific community has worked on several hypotheses, attempting to promote a healthy and sustainable solution. In a perfect situation, the answer must include the use of natural-based polymers, characterized by their biodegradability and biocompatibility, and other features that make such materials so desired. But the availability of these raw materials cannot meet the high demands of the world’s needs.

Biodegradable synthetic polymers can be a solution to plastic pollution, which is explained by their biodegradability and versatility—polymers can be tailored towards a particular property and, therefore, a specific application—but mostly due to the possibility of producing this synthetic material on a large-scale, unlike natural resources. The use of these synthetic polymers such as polyesters, polyurethanes, and polyanhydrides, among others, has recently experienced rapid growth, with a wide range of applicability, from biomedical fields to industrial ones.

This Special Issue covers several aspects: synthetic biodegradable polymer synthesis and last developments, characterization, and tailoring of synthetic polymers properties, biodegradability and biocompatibility studies, and economic and social impacts, among others. These synthetic polymers are a desirable and feasible approach to reduce the waste disposal issue.

Dr. Sandra M. A. Cruz
Dr. Filipa A. M. M. Gonçalves
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Synthetic polymers
  • polyesters
  • biodegradability
  • circular economy
  • sustainability
  • recycling

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3255 KiB  
Article
The Use of Branching Agents in the Synthesis of PBAT
by Ilya E. Nifant’ev, Vladimir V. Bagrov, Pavel D. Komarov, Sergey O. Ilyin and Pavel V. Ivchenko
Polymers 2022, 14(9), 1720; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14091720 - 22 Apr 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3533
Abstract
Biodegradable polyesters represent an advanced alternative to polyolefin plastics in various applications. Polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) can compete with polyolefins in terms of their mechanical characteristics and melt processing conditions. The properties of PBAT depend on the molecular weight, dispersity, and architecture of [...] Read more.
Biodegradable polyesters represent an advanced alternative to polyolefin plastics in various applications. Polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) can compete with polyolefins in terms of their mechanical characteristics and melt processing conditions. The properties of PBAT depend on the molecular weight, dispersity, and architecture of the copolymer. Long-chain branching (LCB) of the PBAT backbone is an efficient method for the improvement of the copolymer characteristics. In the present work, we studied branching agents (BAs) 17 of different structures in the two-stage polycondensation of 1,4-butanediol, dimethyl terephthalate, and adipic acid and investigated the composition and melt rheology of the copolymers. According to the results of the research, 1,1,1-tris(hydroxymethyl)ethane 2 and 3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropanoic acid 5 outperformed glycerol 1 as BAs in terms of shear thinning behavior and viscoelasticity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthetic Biodegradable Polymers)
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12 pages, 5648 KiB  
Article
A Facile and Cost-Effective Method to Prepare Biodegradable Poly(ester urethane)s with Ordered Aliphatic Hard-Segments for Promising Medical Application as Long-Term Implants
by Jingjing Bi, Yifan Liu and Jiaxu Liu
Polymers 2022, 14(9), 1674; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14091674 - 20 Apr 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1244
Abstract
The article below describes a simple methodology to prepare cost-effective biodegradable poly(ester urethane)s (PEUs) with ordered hard segments (OHS) for medical application as long-term implants. A low-cost diurethane diol (1,4-butanediol-hexanediisocyanate-1,4-butanediol, BHB) was first designed and synthesized. Consequently, the BHB was employed as a [...] Read more.
The article below describes a simple methodology to prepare cost-effective biodegradable poly(ester urethane)s (PEUs) with ordered hard segments (OHS) for medical application as long-term implants. A low-cost diurethane diol (1,4-butanediol-hexanediisocyanate-1,4-butanediol, BHB) was first designed and synthesized. Consequently, the BHB was employed as a chain extender to react with NCO-terminated poly(ε-caprolactone) to obtain PEUs. The molecular structural formats for BHB and PEUs were defined through NMR, FT-IR, and MS together with GPC, while the influence of OHS content on physical/chemical features for casted PEU films was investigated. The introduction of OHS could contribute to forming denser hydrogen-bonds, and consequently produce a compact network structure, resulting in great tensile capacity, low water absorption, and slow hydrolytic degradation rate by PEU films. PEU-2.0 films, which possessed the highest OHS content within PEUs, exhibited 40.6 MPa tensile strength together with 477% elongation at break, 4.3 wt % equilibrium water absorption and only 29.5% weight loss post-12 months’ degradation. In addition, cytotoxicity analysis of film extracts indicated that the cell viability of all PEUs containing OHS exceeded 75%, indicating good cytocompatibility. Due to outstanding tensile features, high biostability, nontoxic and absorbable degradation products and acceptable cytocompatibility, the cost-effective materials exhibited promising applications in the field of long-term implants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthetic Biodegradable Polymers)
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10 pages, 2268 KiB  
Article
Superabsorbent Polymer Network Degradable by a Human Urinary Enzyme
by Minji Whang, Hyeonji Yu and Jungwook Kim
Polymers 2021, 13(6), 929; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13060929 - 17 Mar 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3923
Abstract
Owing to its superior water absorption capacity, superabsorbent polymer (SAP) based on a poly (acrylic acid) network is extensively used in industrial products such as diapers, wound dressing, or surgical pads. However, because SAP does not degrade naturally, a massive amount of non-degradable [...] Read more.
Owing to its superior water absorption capacity, superabsorbent polymer (SAP) based on a poly (acrylic acid) network is extensively used in industrial products such as diapers, wound dressing, or surgical pads. However, because SAP does not degrade naturally, a massive amount of non-degradable waste is discarded daily, posing serious environmental problems. Considering that diapers are the most widely used end-product of SAP, we created one that is degradable by a human urinary enzyme. We chose three enzyme candidates, all of which have substrates that were modified with polymerizable groups to be examined for cleavable crosslinkers of SAP. We found that the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) substrate, end-modified with acrylamide groups at sufficient distances from the enzymatic cleavage site, can be successfully used as a cleavable crosslinker of SAP. The resulting SAP slowly degraded over several days in the aqueous solution containing uPA at a physiological concentration found in human urine and became shapeless in ~30 days. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synthetic Biodegradable Polymers)
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