Crystallization and morphology of poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) blends. I. Spherulitic morphology and growth by polarized microscopy

The development of the poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) morphology in the presence of already existent poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) spherulites was studied by two‐stage solidification with two separate crystallization temperatures. PVDF formed irregular dendrites at lower temperatures and regular, banded spherulites at elevated temperatures. The transition temperature of the spherulitic morphology from dendrites to regular, banded spherulites increased with increasing PVDF content. A remarkable amount of PHB was included in the PVDF dendrites, whereas PHB was rejected into the remaining melt from the banded spherulites. When PVDF crystallized as banded spherulites, PHB could consequently crystallize only around them, if at all. In contrast, PHB crystallized with a common growth front, starting from a defined site in the interfibrillar regions of volume‐filling PVDF dendrites. It formed by itself dendritic spherulites that included a large number of PVDF spherulites. For blends with a PHB content of more than 80 wt %, for which the PVDF dendrites were not volume‐filling, PHB first formed regular spherulites. Their growth started from outside the PVDF dendrites but could later interpenetrate them, and this made their own morphology dendritic. These PHB spherulites melted stepwise because the lamellae inside the PVDF dendrites melted at a lower temperature than those from outside. This reflected the regularity of the two fractions of the lamellae because that of those inside the dendrites of PVDF was controlled by the intraspherulitic order of PVDF, whereas that from outside was only controlled by the temperature and the melt composition. The described morphologies developed without mutual nucleating efficiency of the components. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 873–882, 2003     

Isothermal crystallization kinetics of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate)/layered double hydroxide nanocomposites

Poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB)/layered double hydroxides (LDHs) nanocomposites were prepared by mixing PHB and poly(ethylene glycol) phosphonates (PEOPAs)‐modified LDH (PMLDH) in chloroform solution. Both X‐ray diffraction data and TEM micrographs of PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites indicate that the PMLDHs are randomly dispersed and exfoliated into the PHB matrix. In this study, the effect of PMLDH on the isothermal crystallization behavior of PHB was investigated using a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and polarized optical microscopy. Isothermal crystallization results of PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites show that the addition of 2 wt % PMLDH into PHB induced more heterogeneous nucleation in the crystallization significantly increasing the crystallization rate and reducing their activation energy. By adding more PMLDH into the PHB probably causes more steric hindrance of the diffusion of PHB, reducing the transportation ability of polymer chains during crystallization, thus increasing the activation energy. The correlation among crystallization kinetics, melting behavior and crystalline structure of PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites can also be discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 3337–3347, 2006     

聚羟基丁酯酯缓释微球的制备及性能

用溶剂蒸发法制备了以新型生物可降解材料聚羟基丁酸酯为载体、以安定为模药的缓释微球,讨论了药物与载体之比对药物含量与包封率的影响,以及制备微球条件对药物释放性能的影响;微球平均粒径为３０～４０μｍ,粒径分布在１～１．５之间,最大载药量为１９．５１％;最高包封率为６７．１１％;体外累积释放曲线呈“两相”释放特征并拌随初始的“突释效应”。扫描电镜观察微球表面呈皱缩表观形态结构,微球内部横断面具有孔道与孔     

PHB (poly‐β‐hydroxybutyrate) and its enzymatic degradation

Our daily life needs depend on plastics, as they are cheap and durable, so they become the most commonly used synthetic chemical products. But from an environmentalist's point of view, a major concern related to these plastics is their non‐biodegradable nature. Driven by growing demand to search for sustainable solutions to dispose off generating huge volume of synthetic plastic wastes, shifted the mind of researcher towards the use of biodegradable plastics which can be completely disposed‐off by microbial enzymatic degradation. These biodegradable plastics or “bioplastics” are also synthesized by microbes under certain stressed environmental conditions out of which poly(R‐3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is the most ubiquitous and best known representatives of polyhydroxyalkanoate family. The PHB is most intensively used for the innovative biomedical applications owing to suitable combination of biocompatibility, transport characteristics, and mechanical properties. These challenging aspects of PHB can be used for designing of novel medical devices, in tissue engineering, and for systematic sustained drug delivery. Lots of research reports on PHB degrading enzymes and their producing microorganisms including biochemical aspects are available but in scattered form. So this review highlighted all the relevant information of PHB and PHB‐degrading enzymes starting with basic classification, synthesis, mechanism, and applications that are environment friendly and are of public interest.     

Poly(propylene carbonate)/poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate)‐based bionanocomposites reinforced with cellulose nanocrystal for potential application as a packaging material

Poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) is an aliphatic polycarbonate synthesized from carbon dioxide and propylene oxide. Poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is a type of thermoplastic polyester produced by biological fermentation. The blending of PHB with PPC can effectively enhance the mechanical properties and barrier properties of PPC. Bionanocomposites of PPC/PHB enhanced by cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) are prepared via a two‐step process using polyethylene glycol as a carrier. Results show that the oxygen barrier properties of the composites increased with the increase of the CNC content. When the CNC content is 1 wt%, the oxygen barrier performance increases nearly 18 times. The assumed model can predict the barrier performance of composites with the combined influence of morphology and CNC distribution. This will make PPC/PHB/CNC nanocomposites a very promising degradable material for food packaging application.     

Thermal degradation kinetics of biodegradable poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate)/layered double hydroxide nanocomposites

The thermal degradation behaviors of biodegradable poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and PHB/poly(ethylene glycol) phosphonates (PEOPAs)‐modified layered double hydroxide (PMLDH) nanocomposites have been investigated using thermogravimetric analysis. Effects of PMLDH contents on the isothermal degradation kinetics of PHB were explored. These experimental results show that the degradation kinetics of PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites is the chain‐scission process of cyclic β‐elimination reaction with the following autocatalytic reactions, which is very similar to that of pure PHB matrix. Further calculated data based on the autocatalytic model can fit very well with the experimental data. The E_a value of PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites is increased as the content of PMLDH increases. This can be attributed to the incorporation of more PMLDH loading to PHB induced a decrease in the degradation rate and an increase in the residual weight for PHB/PMLDH nanocomposites. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 46: 1207–1213, 2008     

Two‐dimensional Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study of biosynthesized poly(hydroxybutyrate‐co‐hydroxyhexanoate) and poly(hydroxybutyrate‐ co‐hydroxyvalerate)

Generalized two‐dimensional (2D) Fourier transform infrared correlation spectroscopy was used to investigate the effect of the comonomer compositions on the crystallization behavior of two types of biosynthesized random copolymers, poly(hydroxybutyrate‐co‐hydroxyhexanoate) and poly(hydroxybutyrate‐co‐hydroxyvalerate). The carbonyl absorption band around 1730 cm^?1 was sensitive to the degree of crystallinity. 2D correlation analysis demonstrated that the 3‐hydroxyhexanoate units preferred to remain in the amorphous phase of the semicrystalline poly(hydroxybutyrate‐co‐hydroxyhexanoate) copolymer, resulting in decreases in the degree of crystallinity and the rate of the crystallization process. The poly(hydroxybutyrate‐co‐hydroxyvalerate) copolymer maintained a high degree of crystallinity when the 3‐hydroxyvalerate fraction was increased from 0 to 25 mol % because of isodimorphism. The crystalline and amorphous absorption bands for the carbonyl bond for this copolymer, therefore, changed simultaneously. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 649–656, 2002; DOI 10.1002/polb.10126     

TH‐11, a Streptomyces sp. Strain that Degrades Poly(3‐Hydroxybutyrate) and Poly(Ethylene Succinate)

TH‐11, a bacterial strain with strong depolymerase activity that breaks down aliphatic esters such as poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) and poly(ethylene succinate) (PES) was isolated from a soil sample collected from the sediment of Tou‐Chain River, Taiwan, R.O.C. It was phenotypically and genetically characterized to be a Streptomyces strain. The degradation of PHB and PES were tested both using emulsified polymers in solid agar and thin polymer films in liquid culture media. The degradations were measured by clear‐zone formation on solid agar plates, or direct weight measurements and electromicroscope inspection of the incubated polymer films in the liquid culture. The depolymerase activities can be detected in the cell‐free preparation of the culture medium, and can be enhanced by gelatin.     

聚β-羟基丁酸酯/超高分子量聚氧化乙烯共混体系相容性和结晶行为

为了解决废弃塑料引起的“白色污染”问题,世界各国竞相研制开发可生物降解高分子材料,其中,有关聚β 羟基丁酸酯［ｐｏｌｙ（β ｈｙｄｒｏｘｙｂｕｔｙｒａｔｅ）（ＰＨＢ）］的研究尤其活跃．然而,由于商品价格较高,材料本身抗冲击性能较差、加工窗口较窄等限制...     

Influence of multiple processing on selected properties of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐4‐hydroxybutyrate)

The effect of multiple (up to 10 times) injection molding of processed poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐4‐hydroxybutyrate) (P(3,4HB)) on its phase transition temperatures, degree of crystallinity, degradation temperature, mass flow rate, mechanical properties, dynamic mechanical properties, and Charpy's impact strength is presented. The studies have shown that the multiple injection lowers the degree of crystallinity and the thermal stability of P(3,4HB). The mass flow rate values increased with increasing the injection number. It was found that the multiple injections had no substantial effect on the tensile strength up to 10 injection cycles and the tensile strength at break, tensile strain at tensile strength, and tensile strain at break up to 6 injection cycles. The maximum value of storage modulus at 30 °C and impact strength were recorded for sample after 4 cycles of injection, while the values of storage modulus at 120 °C increased with increase of the injection cycles. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.