Interprofessional Journal of Health Sciences. Vol.12 No.1 , January - June 2014.

STRUCTURE, CHEMOMECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND DEGRADABILITY OF POLYHYDROXYALKANOATES: A REVIEW

Nuttapol Tanadchangsaeng

Abstract

Interest in biodegradable plastics made from renewable resources has increased significantly in recent years. Bacterially produced polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are fully biodegradable polyesters which attracted much attention recently as alternative, biodegradable substitutes for petroleum-derived synthetic polymers. PHAs are intracellular energy and carbon storage materials produced by numerous bacteria from biorenewable and biowaste resources. The properties of these biological polyesters are affected by the incorporation of different monomer units in PHA copolymer structure leading to a variety of subsequent superior properties such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, thermoprocessibility. The identification of longer side-chains 3-hydroxyalkanoate (3HA) units other than the most extensively-studied 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) unit as constituents of microbial polyesters has an important impact on the structure, physical properties and enzymatic degradabilities of PHA polymer. In this review, the crucial topics concerning with current understanding of PHAs, especially structure, material properties, enzymatic degradation, polymer crystallization and the effect of composition and microstructure structures were described.

Keywords: Polyhydroxyalkanoates, Biodegradable plastics, Enzymatic degradability

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