Beyond nylon 6: polyamides via ring opening polymerization of designer lactam monomers for biomedical applications

Abstract

This review highlights recent developments in nylon polymer synthesis techniques, novel monomer structures developed, and biomedical applications of nylon polymers.

Polyamides Derived from Terpenes: Advances in Their Synthesis, Characterization and Applications

“…As the (bio)medical aspects of PA from lactams are getting increasingly important, these new PAs have a huge potential to find applications also in these fields, for example, with regards to tissue engineering and drug delivery. [42] This is emphasized by the fact that also Nylon-3 (co)polyamides are getting increasingly important for similar applications, which brings the view also to Nylon-6 (co)polymers (from modified 𝜖lactams as described above) in this context. [133,134] The tunability of the properties is and will be an important factor for this, which can be adjusted by several factors.…”

“…Therefore and due to the facts described above, meanwhile also many biobased PAs have been prepared and investigated that are derived from different natural products. [ 1–4,39–42,45–49 ]…”

“…Generally, polyamides (PAs) are very important polymers and materials for a wide range of applications, from different commodities, packaging and customer products up to special fibers, engineering (thermos)plastics used for, for example, electronics and also transportation, as well as other high-performance materials or many medical products. [39][40][41][42] They are mainly synthesized via polycondensation of dicarboxylic acids (or their derivatives) and diamines, or via ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of cyclic amides (lactams), but also further methods exist. Polyamide 66 (Nylon 66) (from adipic acid and hexamethylene diamine) and Polyamide 6 (Nylon 6, Perlon) (from cyclohexanone via 𝜖-caprolactam), respectively, are important examples for these polymers (Scheme 1B,C).…”

“…Therefore and due to the facts described above, meanwhile also many biobased PAs have been prepared and investigated that are derived from different natural products. [1][2][3][4][39][40][41][42][45][46][47][48][49] Regarding terpenes and in addition to this natural variety, catalytic upgrading of terpenes can provide accesses to many more terpenoid structures. [50] An important example is Limonene with its many possibilities of oxidation, aminations, etc.…”

Dihydropyrimidinase from Saccharomyces kluyveri can hydrolyse polyamides

“…Polyamides (PA) are semicrystalline thermoplastics with outstanding mechanical properties and wide range of application. For example, PA-6 and PA-6,6 are well known and largely used in technical clothing and sportive apparel ( Varghese and Grinstaff, 2022 ). PA with more than ten -CH 2 groups between the amide bonds (e.g., PA-12) ( Behler et al, 2007 ) have higher toughness and lower water adsorption.…”