Review : Biodegradability of Synthetic Polymers Used for Medical and Pharmaceutical Applications: Part 1— Principles of Hydrolysis Mechanisms

On sabbatical leave from the Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, U.S.A.

Reference will be made to recent articles on these polymers in the pertinent parts of this review, for the sake of completeness, but they will not be included in the subject matter.

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These principles and the autocatalytic effect of chain hydrolysis are illustrated in Part II of this Review to be published in this Journal.

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The articles in ref. 26 by J. R. Cordinal, pp. 229-248, E. H. Schacht, pp. 259-278, and N. A. Peppas, pp. 279-289, highlight much of the fundamental work done in this area.

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