The Silesian University of Technology has been cooperating intensively with the Group Azoty for five years – especially with the company’s plants in Kędzierzyn-Koźle and Puławy. This year, the partners will complete a project that will produce the monomer caprolactone for the production of polycaprolactone.
The caprolactone monomer will be used to obtain polycaprolactone – a biodegradable polymer with very large biomedical applications. Due to the fact that it undergoes gradual, slow degradation in the human body through the hydrolysis of ester bonds, it is used in the production of implants and absorbable surgical threads.
When there is such a need, its biodegradation time in the organism can be accelerated by using its polylactide copolymers. It is also a material for self-released drugs. The installation for the production of polycaprolactone was constructed this year at the nitrogen plant in Puławy.