Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a widely used thermoplastic polymer, but its excessive use and poor waste management pose environmental challenges. Enzymatic degradation of PET offers a potential solution that is ecofriendly and yields monomers suitable for the synthesis of plastics. In 2016, Yo...

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Main Authors: Lena, Jean-Baptiste, Gonçalves, Rui A., Kharel, Sharad, Kannan, Srinivasaraghavan, Verma, Chandra Shekhar, Pinchi, Keerthi Mohan, Lim, Sierin, Lam, Yeng Ming
Other Authors: School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173484
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1734842024-02-07T00:40:03Z Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior Lena, Jean-Baptiste Gonçalves, Rui A. Kharel, Sharad Kannan, Srinivasaraghavan Verma, Chandra Shekhar Pinchi, Keerthi Mohan Lim, Sierin Lam, Yeng Ming School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology School of Materials Science and Engineering School of Biological Sciences Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR Department of Biological Sciences, NUS Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute Chemistry Enzymatic Degradation Polyethylene Terephthalate Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a widely used thermoplastic polymer, but its excessive use and poor waste management pose environmental challenges. Enzymatic degradation of PET offers a potential solution that is ecofriendly and yields monomers suitable for the synthesis of plastics. In 2016, Yoshida et al. discovered a PET degrading enzyme (PETase) from sediment-dwelling bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis ( Science 2016, 351 (6278), 1196−1199 ). It was found that the enzymatic degradation rate of PET increases with reduced crystallinity, suggesting that this parameter may be amenable to tuning. To investigate the interplay between substrate crystallinity and chemical structure on the efficiency of PET degradation, we synthesized PET, PET copolymers (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate-co-ethylene isophthalate, P(ET-co-EI), poly(ethylene terephthalate-co-ethylene phthalate), P(ET-co-EP)), and branched PET that have been used in packaging. These polymers have good properties for injection molding and oxygen scavenging, respectively. The polymers were synthesized from aryl chloride and ethylene glycol. Size, composition, randomness, thermal properties, and crystallinity of all polymers were determined. The polymers were then enzymatically degraded to compare the efficiency of PETase on different PET substrates. Our study demonstrates that, while chemical modification reduces crystallinity, the influence of chemical structures (the kinks and branches) on the binding of the PETase, and hence the enzymatic degradation, is more significant than the effect of crystallinity. National Research Foundation (NRF) We acknowledge the support from National Research Foundation (NRF) under its Competitive Research Programme (Award# NRF-CRP22-2019-0005). 2024-02-07T00:40:03Z 2024-02-07T00:40:03Z 2023 Journal Article Lena, J., Gonçalves, R. A., Kharel, S., Kannan, S., Verma, C. S., Pinchi, K. M., Lim, S. & Lam, Y. M. (2023). Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 11(38), 13974-13987. https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c02695 2168-0485 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173484 10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c02695 2-s2.0-85174736724 38 11 13974 13987 en NRF-CRP22-2019-0005 ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering © 2023 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Chemistry
Enzymatic Degradation
Polyethylene Terephthalate
spellingShingle Chemistry
Enzymatic Degradation
Polyethylene Terephthalate
Lena, Jean-Baptiste
Gonçalves, Rui A.
Kharel, Sharad
Kannan, Srinivasaraghavan
Verma, Chandra Shekhar
Pinchi, Keerthi Mohan
Lim, Sierin
Lam, Yeng Ming
Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior
description Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a widely used thermoplastic polymer, but its excessive use and poor waste management pose environmental challenges. Enzymatic degradation of PET offers a potential solution that is ecofriendly and yields monomers suitable for the synthesis of plastics. In 2016, Yoshida et al. discovered a PET degrading enzyme (PETase) from sediment-dwelling bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis ( Science 2016, 351 (6278), 1196−1199 ). It was found that the enzymatic degradation rate of PET increases with reduced crystallinity, suggesting that this parameter may be amenable to tuning. To investigate the interplay between substrate crystallinity and chemical structure on the efficiency of PET degradation, we synthesized PET, PET copolymers (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate-co-ethylene isophthalate, P(ET-co-EI), poly(ethylene terephthalate-co-ethylene phthalate), P(ET-co-EP)), and branched PET that have been used in packaging. These polymers have good properties for injection molding and oxygen scavenging, respectively. The polymers were synthesized from aryl chloride and ethylene glycol. Size, composition, randomness, thermal properties, and crystallinity of all polymers were determined. The polymers were then enzymatically degraded to compare the efficiency of PETase on different PET substrates. Our study demonstrates that, while chemical modification reduces crystallinity, the influence of chemical structures (the kinks and branches) on the binding of the PETase, and hence the enzymatic degradation, is more significant than the effect of crystallinity.
author2 School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
author_facet School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Lena, Jean-Baptiste
Gonçalves, Rui A.
Kharel, Sharad
Kannan, Srinivasaraghavan
Verma, Chandra Shekhar
Pinchi, Keerthi Mohan
Lim, Sierin
Lam, Yeng Ming
format Article
author Lena, Jean-Baptiste
Gonçalves, Rui A.
Kharel, Sharad
Kannan, Srinivasaraghavan
Verma, Chandra Shekhar
Pinchi, Keerthi Mohan
Lim, Sierin
Lam, Yeng Ming
author_sort Lena, Jean-Baptiste
title Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior
title_short Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior
title_full Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior
title_fullStr Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior
title_full_unstemmed Elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior
title_sort elucidating the effect of polyethylene terephthalate chain structure on its enzymatic degradation behavior
publishDate 2024
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173484
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