Biodegradation of polyesters containing aromatic constituents

Polymers, which undergo a controlled biological degradation by micro-organi sms came to remarkable interest during the last years. Composting for insta nce could so be established as an alternative waste management system for p arts of the plastic waste. Within this group of innovative polymer, polyest ers play a predominant role, due to their potentially hydrolyzable ester bo nds. While aromatic polyesters such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) exhibit excellent material properties but proved to be almost resistant to microbi al attack, many aliphatic polyesters turned out to be biodegradable but lac k in properties, which are important for application. To combine good mater ial properties with biodegradability, aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters have been developed as biodegradable polymers for many years. This article revie ws the attempts to combine aromatic and aliphatic structures in biodegradab le plastics and work, which has been done to evaluate the degradation behav iour and environmental safety of biodegradable polyesters, containing aroma tic constituents. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.