Multifunctional Polyester-Based Materials with Controlled Degradability
Résumé
Hydrolytic degradability can be fine-tuned in polyester-based materials by controlling the nature and placement of comonomers introduced within the polymer structures. This contribution describes how D,L-lactide-, ε-caprolactone-, and β-hydroxyoctanoate-containing polyesters can be used to design nanostructured drug delivery vehicles and mesoporous polymeric materials. In the first part, the efficient synthesis of poly(β-hydroxyoctanoate)-based block and graft copolymers is addressed. A versatile and straightforward approach toward mesoporous functional polymers via the partial hydrolysis of poly(D,L-lactide)-based Interpenetrating Polymer Networks (IPNs) is discussed in a second part.