Page 21 - Biodegradable Polyesters

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Preface

About 10 years ago Wiley-VCH published in two volumes (totally 1400 pages) the
“Handbook of Thermoplastic Polyesters,” which covered the synthesis, structure
and properties, blends and composites of the commercially available to that time
thermoplastic polyesters, as well as their recycling opportunities. But, practically,
nothing about the biodegradable polyesters has been mentioned in this book.
During the last two decades the interest in biodegradable polyesters has
increased immensely. There are at least two reasons for this. The first one is related
to the steady increasing adverse environmental impacts of synthetic, petroleum-
based polymers, and the second one to the unique opportunities for application
of biodegradable polyesters in medicine, arising from their biocompatibility and
biodegradability.
The needs of biodegradable materials in the commodity area for replacing the
currently used nonbiodegradable polymers are huge, particularly for packaging
purposes. What is more, the expected future growth of this trend is strongly sup-
ported by the fact that a large percentage (up to 50% in the developing countries)
of food products is often wasted because of bad packaging or lack thereof (against
2–3% in European countries).
While the satisfaction of the packaging needs of biodegradable polymers could
be achieved by using materials based on natural polymers (cellulose, starch, pro-
teins), this is not the case in medicine. Owing to the unique inherent properties
of biodegradable polyesters, namely, their biocompatibility and biodegradability,
it was possible to realize revolutionary solutions in medicine for treatment of var-
ious diseases. To name just a few of them – the stents of biodegradable polyesters
for coronary arteries when a considerable amount of plaques is formed, the scaf-
folds of cells for cultivation of different tissues and organs in vitro making possible
the replacement of the damaged ones in the living body, and carriers for controlled
drug delivery, among others.
Following the initiative of Wiley-VCH, this project has been started with the
target of offering an idea about the recent rapid development of biodegradable
polyesters and thus to widen the general picture of thermoplastic polyesters. As
amatteroffact, thepresent bookcan be consideredasvolume3ofthe above
mentioned “Handbook.”