1. Historical background

Polyesters are polymers characterized by the presence of ester functions in the macromolecule backbone. This large family of polymers includes :

• saturated polyesters, which contain saturated hydrocarbon groups;

• aromatic polyesters, which have an aromatic ring in the main chain;

• unsaturated polyesters, which may feature carbon-carbon double bonds within the chain.

These polymers are very old (discovery of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in 1926, first patent for PET in 1941, for example) and are used in a wide range of industrial sectors (packaging, textiles, formulation or biomedical, due to their biocompatibility). They were extensively developed in the 20th century, but were mainly produced from petrochemical monomers by ring-opening polymerization...