Amorphous high glass transition biodegradable polymers by radical polymerization

在工业堆肥厂或农业土壤中使用后，具有报废选择的可生物降解聚合物可能是用于包装和农业应用的聚烯烃的可持续替代品，因为聚烯烃产生的塑料废物最多。然而，目前的主要瓶颈是缺乏基本的合成生物降解材料，这些材料在使用过程中需要平衡良好的物理性能，并且在使用后具有完全和快速的生物降解速度，并具有明确的生物同化证据。本提案旨在研究这些材料的合成、表征和生物降解行为。通过改变环烯酮缩醛和乙烯基单体的结构和聚合方法，通过改变CKA和乙烯基单体的结构来控制材料的微观结构，从而提供了更多的控制材料性能的机会。重点将是调整聚合物的微观结构以实现完全的生物降解，并详细研究生物降解的两个阶段。

Biodegradable polymers with end-of-life options in industrial compost plants or in agricultural soil after use, could be a sustainable replacement of polyolefins used often for packaging and agricultural applications as they create maximum plastic waste. However, presently the major bottleneck is the lack of basic synthetic biodegradable materials with balance in good physical properties required during use and the complete and fast rate of biodegradation after use with unambiguous proof of bio assimilation. The present proposal aims at studying such materials with respect to their synthesis, characterization and biodegradation behaviour. Unconventional method of making polyesters by radical ring-opening polymerization of cyclic ketene acetals with vinyl monomers will be used as it offers more opportunities of controlling the material properties including microstructure by changing both the CKA and vinyl monomer structures and methods of polymerization – batch vs. semi batch processes. Emphasis will be on tuning the microstructure of the polymers for complete biodegradation and studying both stages of biodegradation in details.