Degradation products of aliphatic and aliphatic-aromatic polyesters

Analysis of degradation products needs to be included in degradability testing to ensure the environmental adaptability of degradable polymers. Identification of breakdown products from environmental degradation is important for understanding the degradation process, environmental interaction and impact of degradable polymers. with regard to degradability aliphatic polyesters are a particularly interesting group of polymers. They are susceptible to hydrolysis and biological attack due to the ester groups in the main chain. This paper summarizes the work done on the chromatographic analysis of degradation products from the most common aliphatic and aliphatic-aromatic polyesters under different abiotic and biotic conditions including simulated, accelerated and real environmental conditions.