A Heterogeneous Kinetic Model for the Cutinase‐Catalyzed Hydrolysis of Cyclo‐tris‐ethylene Terephthalate

The kinetics of enzyme‐catalyzed hydrolysis of the polyester oligomer cyclo‐tris‐ethylene terephthalate, commonly known as cyclic trimer, using a developmental cutinase is reported. The effect of substrate surface area and enzyme concentration, in a largely aqueous medium, on the rate of hydrolysis was measured via spectrophotometric measurement using high performance liquid chromatography (λ 254 nm) at 60 °C in a glycine buffer (pH 8). The rate was strongly dependent on the substrateapos;s surface characteristics. When the substrate surface area was relatively small and the substrate was relatively low in crystallinity, the reaction followed zero order kinetics, whereas a first order rate constant was obtained when the substrate surface area was increased considerably and the crystallinity was relatively high.