Handbook of Biodegradable Polymers: Isolation, Synthesis, Characterization and Applications

A comprehensive overview of biodegradable polymers, covering everything from synthesis, characterization, and degradation mechanisms while also introducing useful applications, such as drug delivery systems and biomaterial-based regenerative therapies.

An introductory section deals with such fundamentals as basic chemical reactions during degradation, the complexity of biological environments and experimental methods for monitoring degradation processes.

The result is a reliable reference source for those wanting to learn more about this important class of polymer materials, as well as scientists in the fi eld seeking a deeper insight.

1 Polyesters (Adam L. Sisson, Michael Schroeter, and Andreas Lendlein).

2 Biotechnologically Produced Biodegradable Polyesters (Jaciane Lutz Ienczak and Gláucia Maria Falcão de Aragão).

3 Polyanhydrides (Avi Domb, Jay Prakash Jain, and Neeraj Kumar).

4 Poly(Ortho Esters) (Jorge Heller).

5 Biodegradable Polymers Composed of Naturally Occurring α-Amino Acids (Ramaz Katsarava and Zaza Gomurashvili).

6 Biodegradable Polyurethanes and Poly(ester amide)s (Alfonso Rodríguez-Galán, Lourdes Franco, and Jordi Puiggalí).

7 Carbohydrates (Gerald Dräger, Andreas Krause, Lena Möller, and Severian Dumitriu).

8 Biodegradable Shape-Memory Polymers (Marc Behl, Jörg Zotzmann, Michael Schroeter, and Andreas Lendlein).

9 Biodegradable Elastic Hydrogels for Tissue Expander Application (Thanh Huyen Tran, John Garner, Yourong Fu, Kinam Park, and Kang Moo Huh).

10 Biodegradable Dendrimers and Dendritic Polymers (Jayant Khandare and Sanjay Kumar).

11 Analytical Methods for Monitoring Biodegradation Processes of Environmentally Degradable Polymers (Maarten van der Zee).

12 Modeling and Simulation of Microbial Depolymerization Processes of Xenobiotic Polymers (Masaji Watanabe and Fusako Kawai).

13 Regenerative Medicine: Reconstruction of Tracheal and Pharyngeal Mucosal Defects in Head and Neck Surgery (Dorothee Rickert, Bernhard Hiebl, Rosemarie Fuhrmann, Friedrich Jung, Andreas Lendlein, and Ralf-Peter Franke).

14 Biodegradable Polymers as Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering (Yoshito Ikada).

15 Drug Delivery Systems (Kevin M. Shakesheff).

16 Oxo-biodegradable Polymers: Present Status and Future Perspectives (Emo Chiellini, Andrea Corti, Salvatore D’Antone, and David Mckeen Wiles).