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Letter

Nature Materials 5, 966–970 (1 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/nmat1778

Environmentally degradable, high-performance thermoplastics from phenolic phytomonomers

Tatsuo Kaneko , Tran Hang Thi , Dong Jian Shi & Mitsuru Akashi

Aliphatic polyesters, such as poly(lactic acid), which degrade by hydrolysis, from naturally occurring molecules form the main components of biodegradable plastics. However, these polyesters have become substitutes for only a small percentage of the currently used plastic materials because of their poor thermal and mechanical properties.