Abstract
The biomedical applications of polyesters and polycarbonates are of interest due to their potential biocompatibility and biodegradability. Confined by the narrow scope of monomers and the lack of controlled polymerization routes, the biomedical-related applications of polyesters and polycarbonates remain challenging. To address this challenge, ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP) has been exploited to prepare new alternating polyesters and polycarbonates, which would be hard to synthesize using other controlled polymerization methods. This review highlights recent advances in catalyst development, including the emerging dinuclear organometallic complexes and metal-free Lewis pair systems. The post-polymerization modification methods involved in tailoring the biomedical functions of resultant polyesters and polycarbonates are summarized. Pioneering attempts for the biomedical applications of ROCOP polyesters and polycarbonates are presented, and the future opportunities and challenges are also highlighted.
Highlights
The polymerization of carbon dioxide (CO2) with epoxides to form polycarbonate can maximize the use of CO2 to achieve value-adding benefits, in which polycarbonate has great potential for biomedical applications due to its excellent optical and mechanical properties, as well as good biocompatibility (Paul et al, 2015b; Cui et al, 2019; Ye et al, 2019)
Regarding the advantages of dinuclear complexes and metal-free Lewis pairs for making polymers with potential applications in biomedicine, this review focuses on the recent development of ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP) of epoxides/CO2 or cyclic anhydrides (Figure 1) to produce polycarbonates, polyesters, or copolymers, with novel homo- and heterodinuclear metal catalysts and metal-free Lewis pair catalyst systems
The catalysis of ROCOP has been investigated for decades, and a few comprehensive reviews have been reported
Summary
Ring-Opening Copolymerization of Epoxides With CO2 and Cyclic Anhydrides for Biomedical. Confined by the narrow scope of monomers and the lack of controlled polymerization routes, the biomedical-related applications of polyesters and polycarbonates remain challenging. To address this challenge, ring-opening copolymerization (ROCOP) has been exploited to prepare new alternating polyesters and polycarbonates, which would be hard to synthesize using other controlled polymerization methods. The post-polymerization modification methods involved in tailoring the biomedical functions of resultant polyesters and polycarbonates are summarized. Pioneering attempts for the biomedical applications of ROCOP polyesters and polycarbonates are presented, and the future opportunities and challenges are highlighted
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