ABSTRACT
The physical characteristics of the polymers depend on their composition and molecular weight. The melting behavior of poly(a-hydroxycarboxylie acids) is largely influenced by their chemical structure (Table 1). The homopolymers L-PLA and PGA and copolymers with a high percentage of L-lactide and glycolide are semicrystalline plastics. Therefore, in the differential scanning calorimetry diagram, an endothermic melting peak is found, whereas a glass transition point can be observed with other polymers of this series. Solubility characteristics depend also on the polymer composition. They are presented in Table 2.
