Polyurethanes

Polyurethanes (PURs) are versatile class of polymers with a great control over their physicochemical properties. They are constituted with hard and soft segments, and therefore, they are called segmented PURs, and based on the nature of segment composition, their properties can be greatly altered to meet the requirements for a particular biomedical applications. Segmented PURs are designed with well-defined degradation and mechanical properties combined with excellent biocompatibility that makes them attractive for the development of drug delivery, tissue engineering, and medical devices. This chapter highlights the synthetic aspects of the PURs and methods related to their characterization in terms of physicochemical properties using in vitro and in vivo techniques and examples of relevant biomedical applications. This chapter also includes details on poly(ether urethanes), poly(ester urethanes), poly(carbonate urethanes), poly(siloxane urethanes), surface-modified PURs, and composite PURs in various fields for biomedical applications are addressed.