Polymer based biomaterials possess many advantages. Among others it is their flexible processibility into various shapes employing a broad range of forming methods known for polymers. For thermoplastic materials this includes melt-extrusion into three dimensional objects whereas solution processing (pneumatic extrusion, nanoprecipitation, spin-coating, electrospinning etc.) can be used if proper solvents are available and solution parameters are in a desired range. Polymeric biomaterials are of further interest since their chemical composition and structure can be influenced in a wide range by derivatization reactions. Though the polymer backbone of natural e.g. polysaccharides is "pre-defined", homogeneous or heterogeneous derivatization allows for a targeted change in their properties. This lecture will give examples on what kind of reactions and surface modifications can be performed with biodegradable polymers and how these materials can be processed into various shapes. The presentation also includes results on the evaluation of biological efficacies of selected materials based on esters, ethers and amide derivatives of biodegradable or bio-based polymers with an emphasis on polysaccharides.

Derivatization and processing of biodegradable polymers into biomaterials

255th National Meeting (2018)

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