Microbial synthesis of poly(beta-hydroxy alkanoates) containing novel functional side chain units for advanced material applications

The preparation of novel functional poly(;For both organisms, only small deviations in the cell viability were observed when comparing second cultivations containing only 15 mM OA to those using mixtures of OA with either CPA or NPH as well as 15 mM NA to those using mixtures NA with MFLA. It was also found that these organisms showed no evidence of polymer accumulation at the onset of the second stage. It was suggested that these carbon sources by themselves supported neither cell growth nor polymer productions.;In CPA and NPH carbon sources, it was found that the composition and volumetric polymer yields were highly sensitive to the second stage cultivation time. The maximum PHA yields were obtained after 1d cultivation period and higher polymer productivity was achieved when using CPA as opposed to NPH. Use of NPH in place of CPH had deleterious effects on both P. putida polymer formation and NP incorporation. However, P. oleovorans formed PHA with only up to ;In MFLA carbon sources studied, higher polymer productivity was achieved when using P. oleovorans as opposed to P. putida. For both organisms, overally decreased PHA yields was observed for cultivations with NA/MFLA relative to 15 mM NA cultures.;In all cases, high molecular weight PHA's were formed and it was deduced that CP, NP and fluorine incorporation into PHA's formed by P. putida led to the formation of relatively lower molecular weight.;Investigation of the non-linear optical (NLO) properties of the PHA's containing CP or NP side groups illustrated that there was little change in the second harmonic generation (SHG) intensities up to 26 mole % CP incorporation. More increases to 35 mole %, SHG intensity was increased by a factor of 8 NP incorporated PHA's showed a higher SHG intensity than CP incorporated PHA's.;Surface properties of the PHA's containing multi-fluorinated alkyl side chains was examined by measuring the surface contact angle. In-vivo biodegradation studies suggested that PHA's containing CP side chain units were biodegraded more slowly than PHA's containing no CP side groups. Large increases in CP content were observed with increasing biodegradation time. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).