Polymeric biomaterials

Recognition of the chemical nature of polymers began in the early 1920, when Staudinger concluded from his research on starch, natural rubber and cellulose that these compounds consisted of giant chains of carbon atoms (plus oxygen atoms in the case of the polysaccharides) held together by covalent bonds. They were truly macromolecules. This notion was met with disbelief and even ridicule by many of his colleagues. Not until the 1930s, when linear polymers were synthesized, especially by W.H. Carothers in the Du Pont laboratories, did Staudinger's concept gain universal acceptance. The Nobel Prize in chemistry was finally given to him in 1953.