Synthesis and Biodegradability of Polyaspartic Acid: A Critical Review

Poly(aspartic acid) (PAA) being biodegradable is suitable for various industrial medical and agricultural applications to replace many non‐biodegradable polymers in use. Poly(aspartic acid) can be synthesized by different methods with and without catalyst in different forms such as polysuccinimide, either hydrolyzed to acid or salt. The polymer of (aspartic acid) is present in different forms such as α,β and L, D isomers. The conformational analysis of poly(aspartic acid) was done by various analytical methods. Different combinations of these two isomer present in different percentage can be detected by various methods such as Hoffman degradation, IR, and NMR spectroscopic analysis. From the standard test for biodegradability, it was shown that the polymer is fully biodegradable. In this review, synthesis and characterization of homo and copolymer derivatives of PAA, along with the application and biodegradability in comparison with the other polymer in use, is discussed briefly.

Keywords:

• biodegradation
• poly(aspartic acid)
• polysuccinimide
• synthesis
• thermal
• polycondensation

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Dr S. P. Vernekar for his kind help, and Dr. S. Sivaram, Director and Head of the Polymer Chemistry Division, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India, for the encouragement.