Structure, Properties and Biodegradation of Some Bacterial Copoly(hydroxyalkanoate)s

This article describes the relationships between not only comonomer‐unit compositions but also their distributions and structures as well as properties for bacterial copoly(hydroxyalkanoate)s, including poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐ co ‐3‐hydroxyvalerate), poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐ co ‐3‐hydroxy‐propionate), poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐ co ‐3‐hydroxyhexanoate), poly(3‐hydroxy‐butyrate‐ co ‐4‐hydroxybutyrate) and poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐ co ‐3‐mercapto‐propionate). It was found that as‐produced copoly(hydroxy‐alkanoate)s have broad comonomer‐unit compositional distributions, which we can control to some degree. The structure and properties of copoly(hydroxy‐alkanoate)s depend not only on the chemical structure and the comonomer‐unit composition but also on the comonomer‐unit compositional distribution.