Perspectives on Modification of Aliphatic Polyesters by Radiation Processing

Aliphatic polyesters have been studied mainly for medical applications, but also for other uses. Although the properties of different aliphatic polyesters are broad, there is a need for modifications to achieve desired material properties. Plasma modification of polymers has been applied to surface modification of polymers, while the bulk of the polymer remains unchanged. High energy radiation induced processing is an established technique that is used in polymer science. Radiation is used to initiate radical polymerizations and for modifications such as degradation, cross-linking, and graft-copolymerization. In this paper article radiation processing of aliphatic polyesters is reviewed. Included are synthetic polyesters, like polyglycolide, polylactide, poly(ε-caprolactone), poly(lactide-co-caprolactone) and two commonly occurring bacterial polyesters, polyhydroxybutyrate and poly(hydroxybutyrate- co-valerate). Relevant processing parameters as well as the effects and applications of the radiation modification are presented.