Renaissance of Aliphatic Polycarbonates: New Techniques and Biomedical Applications.

Aliphatic polycarbonates were discovered a long time ago, with their conventional applications mostly limited to low molecular weight oligomeric intermediates for copolymerization with other polymers. Recent developments in polymerization techniques have overcome the difficulty in preparing high molecular weight aliphatic polycarbonates. These in turn, along with new functional monomers, have enabled the preparation of a wide range of aliphatic polycarbonates with diverse chemical compositions and structures. This review summarizes the latest polymerization techniques for preparing well-defined functional aliphatic polycarbonates, as well as the new applications of those aliphatic polycarbonates, esecially in the biomedical field.