Microbial Degradation of Plastic in Aqueous Solutions Demonstrated by CO2 Evolution and Quantification

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Marina Resmini¹  ChinaA. Hanson¹  IanA. Sanders¹  KatherineH. Richardson¹  Ruth-Sarah Rose¹  ElmeriJohannes Latvanen¹ 

[1] School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 4NS, UK;

关键词: plastic;    biodegradation;    rhodococcus rhodochrous;    alcanivorax borkumensis;    polyethylene;    bioplastic;    molecular weight;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms21041176

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The environmental accumulation of plastics worldwide is a consequence of the durability of the material. Alternative polymers, marketed as biodegradable, present a potential solution to mitigate their ecological damage. However, understanding of biodegradability has been hindered by a lack of reproducible testing methods. We developed a novel method to evaluate the biodegradability of plastic samples based on the monitoring of bacterial respiration in aqueous media via the quantification of CO₂ produced, where the only carbon source available is from the polymer. Rhodococcus rhodochrous and Alcanivorax borkumensis were used as model organisms for soil and marine systems, respectively. Our results demonstrate that this approach is reproducible and can be used with a variety of plastics, allowing comparison of the relative biodegradability of the different materials. In the case of low-density polyethylene, the study demonstrated a clear correlation between the molecular weight of the sample and CO₂ released, taken as a measure of biodegradability.

【 授权许可】

Unknown