New Chemistry in Functional Aliphatic Polyesters

Aliphatic polyesters are important biodegradable polymers with wide applications. Polyesters prepared by ring-opening polymerization often have a limited range of properties, because of the minimal functional diversity of available lactone monomers. In this review, synthetic strategies in preparing functional lactone monomers are highlighted, as well as recent controlled polymerization strategies to synthesize functional aliphatic polyesters, which include proton-transfer polymerization, ring opening polymerization of O-carboxyanhydrides, radical ring-opening polymerization of cyclic ketene acetals, and copolymerization of epoxide/anhydride.