Production+of+Biodegradable+Polymers

Various biodegradable polymers are currently manufactured. The polymers are either semi-synthetic or fully synthetic. The most common semi-synthetic polymers include cellulose acetate and starch-based polymer blends, which are essentially modified biopolymers extracted from living organisms. On the other hand, fully synthetic polymers are not derived from living organisms and may be sourced from petroleum products. With the addition of various plasticizers, many of these polymers can be used to produce thermoplastic, which may be used to replace non-biodegradable polymer-based plastics. In addition, biodegradable polymers have non-plastic applications, such as films and scaffolds for drug delivery. A sample of commonly found biodegradable polymers are discussed in the sections below.

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