Nucleation Effect of Layered Metal Phosphonate on Crystallization of Bacterial Poly[(3‐hydroxybutyrate)‐co‐(3‐hydroxyhexanoate)]

The nucleating effect of zinc phenylphosphonate (PPZn) was investigated on the as‐bacterially synthesized poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB)] and poly[(3‐hydroxybutyrate)‐co‐(3‐hydroxyhexanoate)]s [P(3HB‐co‐3HHx)s] in order to improve their crystallization rate. PPZn is found an efficient nucleating agent on the crystallization of P(3HB) and P(3HB‐co‐3HHx) with low 3HHx unit content. The nucleation mechanism is proposed to be epitaxial nucleation. Both the comonomer‐unit composition and its distribution of P(3HB‐co‐3HHx)s were found exhibiting significant effect on the nucleating effect of PPZn. It is found that PPZn is more efficient on nucleating the crystallization of P(3HB‐co‐3HHx) with a broader comonomer‐unit compositional distribution than that with a narrower distribution. magnified image