Molecular design of biodegradable functional polymers, 4 Poly(vinyl alcohol) block as biodegradable segment

✍ Scribed by Shuichi Matsumura; Yukimasa Shimura; Kazunobu Toshima; Masao Tsuji; Tadashi Hatanaka

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 452 KB
• Volume: 196
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1352
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.1995.021961101

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The minimum structure of a poly(vinyl alcohol) block as a biodegradable segment in the polymer chain was estimated with respect to block length and its stereochemical configuration. It was found that poly(vinyl alcohol) block with a chain length of more than 3 monomeric units and having an isotactic structure is quickly biodegraded, in contrast to an atactic block having the same chain length, by poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) assimilating microbes and PVA‐dehydrogenase. It was also found that the substrate specificity of PVA‐dehydrogenase obtained from both Alcaligenes faecalis KK314 and Pseudomonas sp. 113 P3 is quite similar.