US 6,150,490 AGranted

Biologically degradable polyester, materials made from the polyester and production process

AssigneeDegussa-Huels Aktiengesellschaft

InventorsWolf-Dieter Deckwer, Rolf Joachim Muller, Uwe Witt, Hans-Jurgen Arning

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Abstract

The invention concerns biologically degradable polyesterS which are degraded under the action of micro-organisms in the natural environment. Said polyesters are high molecular weight satistical copolyesters which are made using an aliphatic polyalcohol, an aromatic polycarboxylic acid and also an aliphatic polycarboxylic acid as monomer components. They contain constitutional repeating or recurrent units comprising (i) a polyalcohol and an aromatic polycarboxylic acid and (ii) a polyalcohol and an aliphatic polycarboxylic acid, where over 90% of the units of type (i) are directly bonded with none or at most one other unit of type (i). The polyesters are produced by using a di-isocyanate as an additional monomer component, less isocyanate being used than any of the other monomer components. The present invention also concerns materials made from said biodegradable polyester and a process for producing said polyesters.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A biodegradable polyester which is degradable in a natural environment under the influence of microorganisms, said polyester comprising a high molecular weight random copolyester prepared from monomer components comprising (a) an aliphatic polyol, (b) an aromatic polycarboxylic acid or condensable derivative thereof, and (c) an aliphatic polycarboxylic acid or condensable derivative thereof, said polyester containing repeating units which comprise

(i) first repeating units containing polyol and aromatic polycarboxylic acid residues and
(ii) second repeating units containing polyol and aliphatic polycarboxylic acid residues,
more than 90% of the units according to (i) being directly coupled to at most one further unit (i), wherein the biodegradable polyesters have a molecular weight of 60,000 to 350,000 g/mole and are produced using one or more diisocyanates as an additional monomer component, said diisocyanate(s) being used in a smaller quantity by weight compared with that of any of the other monomer components (a), (b), or (c).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.