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Copolymerization of Bacterial Cell Wall Materials to Enhance Stability of Polyhydroxyalkanoate
Author(s) -
Chen Ning,
Xiang Xu,
Saha Ratul,
Bagley Susan T.,
Heiden Patricia A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201200503
Subject(s) - polyhydroxyalkanoates , copolymer , peptidoglycan , thermal stability , cell wall , polymer , polymer chemistry , solvent , bacterial cell structure , chemistry , materials science , chemical engineering , bacteria , organic chemistry , biochemistry , genetics , engineering , biology
This brief investigation reports copolymerizing polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) with a durable bacterial cell wall component, peptidoglycan (PTG). PHAs are biodegradable polymers produced by some bacteria, but the environmental advantage is offset by the time, energy, and solvent use to separation PHAs from cell residues, including PTG. Here, a PHA was copolymerized with PTG (10, 25 wt%). Thermal stability and moisture uptake of the resulting polyesteramide showed copolymers absorbed up to 60% more moisture than the PHA but at 25 wt% peptidoglycan the onset of decomposition increased by nearly 125 °C. Less PTG in PHA gave lesser increases. The results suggest that useful materials might be produced with less rigorous purification strategies for bacterially produced PHAs.