U.S. patent application for a biodegradable aliphatic-aromatic copolyester filed by Novamont, listing Catia Bastioli among the inventors.
On March 17, 2006, Novamont S.p.A. filed a U.S. patent application (later published as 20080194770) titled "Biodegradable aliphatic-aromatic copolyester," with Catia Bastioli listed among the inventors. Aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters represented an important class of biodegradable polymers combining the flexibility and processability of aliphatic segments with the strength and thermal stability contributed by aromatic segments.
This research addressed a key technical challenge in bioplastics development: creating materials that could match the versatility of conventional plastics used in film, packaging, and molded goods while retaining full biodegradability under composting conditions. The resulting copolyesters could be blended with starch-based components, a hallmark of Novamont's Mater-Bi technology platform, to produce materials suited to diverse applications from agricultural films to food packaging.
The filing exemplifies Bastioli's continued leadership in advancing the chemistry underlying sustainable plastics well beyond her earlier starch-based foam work, demonstrating an expanding and increasingly sophisticated patent portfolio that helped position Novamont as a global leader in bioplastics innovation during the mid-2000s.