Biodegradable Polyesters from Renewable Resources

Abstract

Environmental concerns have led to the development of biorenewable polymers with the ambition to utilize them at an industrial scale. Poly(lactic acid) and poly(hydroxyalkanoates) are semicrystalline, biorenewable polymers that have been identified as the most promising alternatives to conventional plastics. However, both are inherently susceptible to brittleness and degradation during thermal processing; we discuss several approaches to overcome these problems to create a balance between durability and biodegradability. For example, copolymers and blends can increase ductility and the thermal-processing window. Furthermore, chain modifications (e.g., branching/crosslinking), processing techniques (fiber drawing/annealing), or additives (plasticizers/nucleating agents) can improve mechanical properties and prevent thermal degradation during processing. Finally, we examine the impacts of morphology on end-of-life degradation to complete the picture for the most common renewable polymers.

Maintaining Structural Stability of Poly(lactic acid): Effects of Multifunctional Epoxy based Reactive Oligomers

“…It has been shown that these modifications result in PLA based materials with improved elongation at break, impact strength, toughness and barrier properties. However, similar to unmodified PLA, hydrolytic degradation remains a concern [12][13][14]. In fact depending on the hydrophilicity of the modifier used, the degradation rate of PLA has been found to increase in modified materials significantly affecting their processability [11,14].…”

Scalable production of mechanically tunable block polymers from sugar

“…However, the brittle nature of PLA and other commercial aliphatic polyesters such as poly(butylene succinate) and poly (hydroxyalkanoate)s has thwarted their broad-based utility. Expanded market penetration will pivot on the development of products endowed with tunable combinations of properties, e.g., soft, ductile, and tough (17,18). Among myriad strategies that have been used to this end, PLA-containing block polymers represent a particularly attractive approach.…”

Aprovechamiento de recursos renovables en la obtención de nuevos materiales

“…A partir de monómeros derivados de recursos naturales y mediante síntesis química se pueden convertir en biomateriales [1,2,4,5,[34][35][36][37][38] como los poliésteres y el PLA. Un ejemplo es el enunciado por Dai y Qiu en 2016, en el que, por medio de una policondensación, en dos etapas, sintetizan materiales biodegradables: tres nuevos copoliésteres poli (succinato de butileno-co-succinato de decametileno) (PBDS) y su homopolímero poli (succinato de butileno) (PBS) a partir de monómeros biobasados como el ácido succínico, el 1,4-butanodiol y el 1,10-decanodiol [34].…”

“…Factores como nuevas posturas en sostenibilidad, avances en la nanotecnología y la crisis petrolera de las últimas décadas muestran una visión diferente en las tendencias para el aprovechamiento de los recursos naturales. Entre éstas, se encuentra una enfocada hacia la ciencia de los polímeros para desarrollar nuevos materiales a partir de recursos renovables en lugar de los tradicionales polímeros basados en fuentes fósiles que generan grandes cantidades de residuos no biodegradables y su disposición final se convierte en un grave problema [1][2][3][4][5], a pesar que existen programas de reciclaje [6][7][8]. Por ello, se hace necesario encontrar materiales preferentemente renovables, biodegradables e inofensivos para el medio ambiente.…”