Biodegradability of Poly(hydroxyalkanoate) Materials

Materials

Keiji Numata¹  Hideki Abe² 

[1] Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University / 4 Colby Street, Medford, MA 02155, USA; E-Mail:;Chemical Analysis Team, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute/ Hirosawa 2-1, Wako-shi, Saitama 351-0198, Japan; E-Mail:

关键词: poly(hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA);    biodegradation;    PHA depolymerase;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ma2031104

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Poly(hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA), which is produced from renewable carbon resources by many microorganisms, is an environmentally compatible polymeric material and can be processed into films and fibers. Biodegradation of PHA material occurs due to the action of extracellular PHA depolymerase secreted from microorganisms in various natural environments. A key step in determining the overall enzymatic or environmental degradation rate of PHA material is the degradation of PHA lamellar crystals in materials; hence, the degradation mechanism of PHA lamellar crystals has been studied in detail over the last two decades. In this review, the relationship between crystal structure and enzymatic degradation behavior, in particular degradation rates, of films and fibers for PHA is described.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2009 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.