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Studies on comonomer compositional distribution and its effect on some physical properties of bacterial poly(3‐hydroxybutyric acid‐ co ‐3‐hydroxypropionic acid)
Author(s) -
Arai Yousuke,
Cao Amin,
Yoshie Naoko,
Inoue Yoshio
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
polymer international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-0126
pISSN - 0959-8103
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0126(199912)48:12<1219::aid-pi290>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - comonomer , copolyester , miscibility , differential scanning calorimetry , materials science , solvent , crystallization , thermal analysis , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , organic chemistry , chemistry , polymer , copolymer , composite material , thermal , thermodynamics , physics , polyester , engineering
Comonomer compositional distribution of bacterially synthesized poly(3‐hydroxybutyric acid‐ co ‐3‐hydroxypropionic acid) [P(3HB‐ co ‐3HP)] was investigated via solvent/non‐solvent fractionation techniques. The result indicates the presence of extremely broad comonomer compositional distribution in the original bacterial product. Furthermore, utilizing compositionally fractionated bacterial copolyesters with much narrower comonomer compositional distributions, the 3HP comonomer content‐dependence of their thermal and crystallization behavior was studied by means of differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and polarized optical microscopy and the results compared with those of unfractionated copolyesters. It was revealed that the physical features of the fractionated copolyester P(3HB‐ co ‐3HP)s strongly depends on the 3HP comonomer content. In addition, to clarify the effect of the compositional distribution on the properties of the unfractionated copolyester, the miscibility between bacterial poly(3‐hydroxybutyric acid) [P(3HB)] and two fractionated P(3HB‐ co ‐3HP) samples with 11.3 and 14.9% 3HP was investigated for blends obtained by solvent casting techniques. The evidence of thermal analysis and spherulitic growth rates imply miscibility of the P(3HB)/3HB‐rich P(3HB‐ co ‐3HP) binary blends. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry