Polymer Blends of Natural Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) and a Synthetic Atactic Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate). Characterization and Biodegradation Studies

Blends of synthetic atactic poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (a-PHB) with a natural bacterial isotactic copolymer of 3-hydroxybutyrate with 3-hydroxyvalerate (PHBV) containing 10 mol % of 3HV units were prepared using a simple casting procedure. In the range of compositions explored (10−50% a-PHB), blends of bacterial PHBV and synthetic atactic a-PHB were miscible in the melt and solidified with spherulitic morphology. The influence of a-PHB content on the thermal and mechanical properties of the blends was evaluated. The degree of crystallinity decreased with increasing content of a-PHB in the film samples, and the elongation at break for a sample containing 50% of a-PHB was 30-fold that of pure PHBV. Degradation experiments, both hydrolytic (pH = 7.4, T = 70 °C) and enzymatic (PHB-depolymerase A from Pseudomonas lemoignei, Tris-HCl buffer (pH = 8), T = 37 °C), were performed for both polymers and polymer blends. The rate of enzymatic degradation of the blends was higher than that of PHBV and increased with a-PHB content in the blends studied, whereas pure a-PHB did not biodegrade under these conditions. 3-Hydroxybutyric acid and its dimer were identified by HPLC as biodegradation products of both pure PHBV and its blends with a-PHB. Higher oligomers up to heptamer were detected as degradation products of the blends by APCI-MS and ESI-MS.