| The aliphatic polyesters that have been widely used for biomedical applications over the past forty years, typically prepared by ring opening polymerization, are reaching a limit in their application because of a decreased ability to further modify their properties. Step growth polymerization techniques offer a greater ability to easily modify the properties of the resulting materials, and easily incorporate polar hetero groups into the polymer backbone. This work first describes fundamental investigations that develop a foundation of knowledge and techniques essential for the metal or enzymatic catalyzed step growth preparation of aliphatic polyester materials and then provides three examples of the preparation of tailored materials. First, the preparation of unique, amorphous rapidly degrading elastomeric materials with tunable mechanical and degradation properties are prepared. Several examples are provided to demonstrate the ease with which these materials can be fabricated. Second, the synthesis of amine functionalized materials, using 1,4-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-piperazine as a diol monomer, is described while also demonstrating the ability to quaternize and complex metal cations to the amine moieties. Lastly, functionalized butadienes are used as precursors to prepare functionalized monomers, which are used to prepare a new class of amine functionalized materials. All materials are characterized by 1H and 13C NMR, GPC, DSC, TGA, and Instron. |
