Joachim Thiem
University of Hamburg, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Chemistry
Martin-Luther-King-Platz 6, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany
sekthiem@chemie.uni-hamburg.de
200 Billion tons of glucose are produced annually by photosynthesis and then transformed into all variations of the total biomass such as oligo- and polysaccharides, proteins and fatty acids, terpenes and steroids, phenols and lignin, a pleothora of further components and their conjugates. Presently, less than 3 % of all natural products are used predominantly for food and feed. It poses a long and often framed desire to employ more and specific natural resources with their intrinsic wealth of highly sophisticated and complex structures for an array of attractive purposes.
Over the years approaches were followed to focus on the synthesis of bulk as well as specialised products, among them polymers and surfactants from renewable resources. In anticipation of particular useful properties such as biological activity, biocompatability and biodegradebility various types of polymers were prepared from saccharide building units.
This contribution will outline some synthetic avenues to carbohydrate-based polyesters, polyethers, polyurethanes1, polyamides2 and glycosilicones3-5 as well as their characterisation and degradation studies.
References :
| 1 | F. Bachmann, J. Reimer, M. Ruppenstein, J. Thiem
Macromol. Chem. Phys., 2001, 202, 3410 - 3419 |
| 2 | F. Bachmann, M. Ruppenstein, J. Thiem
J. Polym. Science A, Polym. Chem., 2001, 39, 2332 - 2341 |
| 3 | D. Henkensmeier, B. C. Abele, A. Candussio, J. Thiem
Polymer, 2004, 45, 7053-7059 |
| 4 | D. Henkensmeier, B. C. Abele, A. Candussio, J. Thiem
Macromol. Chem. Phys., 2004, 205, 1851-1857 |
| 5 | D. Henkensmeier, B. C. Abele, A. Candussio, J. Thiem
J. Polym. Science A, Polym. Chem., 2005, 43, 3814-3822 |
