Polymers from biotechnology

This does not mean we will see a mega-ton return to the old style polymers, such as casein plastics, cellulose nitrate and cellulose acetate. Many of these older polymers have severe deficits. For example, wool is eaten by moths and other insects cotton shrinks and does not hold a crease, unless treated with another polymer cellulose acetate is not solvent resistant, and cellulose nitrate is highly flammable. However, these older polymers come from renewable resources, which are also biodegradable, and this is a virtue in today s throw-away society. This alone should resurrect interest in natural polymers. Additionally, we have learned many vital things in the past century which will enable us to develop new and better polymers from biotechnology - polymers which... 

Proceedings of an American Chemical Society Symposium on Polymers from Biotechnology, held April 22-23, 1990, in Boston, Massachusetts... 

The first part of this book deals with a wide variety of biotechnology-derived polymers, and applications. The opening Chapter (Gebelein) sets forth the overall thesis of this book - that we can obtain hundreds of different types of polymers from biotechnology, a theme which is... 

Wondrack, L. Szanto, M., and Wood, W. A., Depolymerization of Water-Soluble Coal Polymer from Subbituminous Coal and Lignite by Lignin Peroxidase. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 1989. 20-1 pp. 765-780. 

The expected contribution of catalysis in this area will derive both from the availability, at low processing costs, of new monomers obtained from biomasses and from the development of an optimized combination of biotechnology processes with classical and new biocatalytic processes. Research priorities for catalysis in the area of polymers from renewable materials for packaging, furniture, domestic water purification and recycling include the need to develop novel catalysts, e.g., for functionalization of polymeric and dendrimeric materials, with side-chain photoactive molecular switches (to be used as smart materials), or the development of multifunctional materials, combining, for example, nanofiltration with catalytic reactivity. 

In nature the enzymes are able to convert cheap feedstocks such as sugars and amino acids into a large variety of functional and structural polymers with very high complexity. For many years, biopolymers such as starch, dextrose, cellulose, shellac, casein plastics, and proteins were used as polymers from renewable resources to formulate adhesives [9]. The life sciences effort is promoting the development of new processes based upon biotechnological routes to carbo-... 

The focus of the conference was on five frontier areas of polymer research (i) Polymers for photonics (ii) Pofymers for electronics (iii) High performance polymers (iv) Polymers for biotechnology and (v) Potymer blends and composites. Other topics touched on included polymer processing, multifunctional and intelligent polymers, advanced materials from natural pofymers, sol-gel processed materials, polymer surfaces... 

Poirier Y (2002) Polyhydroxyalkanoate synthesis in plants as a tool for biotechnology and basic studies of Upid metabolism. Prog Lipid Res 41 131-155 Poirier Y, Gruys KJ (2001) Production of PHAs in transgenic plants. In Doi Y, Steinbiichel A (eds) Biopolyesters. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, pp 401 35 Poirier Y, van BeUen JB (2008) Production of renewable polymers from crop plants. Plant J 54 684-701... 

Biomass products From agro-resources Agro-polymers 1 From micro-organisms (obtained by extraction) From biotechnology (conventional synthesis from bio-derived monomers) 1 From petrochemical products (conventional synthesis from synthetic monomers)... 

The cultivation of selected fungi has attracted attention as a potential method for the chitin/chitosan production because the fermentation process can continue throughout the year and can be manipulated to obtain a product with specific characteristics. Fungal mycelia wastes from biotechnological plants accumulated in the mushroom production and fermentation industries such as waste mycelia of Aspergillus niger from a citric acid production plant deserve particular attention as alternative sources of chitin/chitosan materials (Cai et al. 2006, Muzzarelli et al. 2004). However, they are not produced commercially at the large scale due to the low yields obtained until now compared to the other fermentation processes and the variability in the polymer physicochemical properties. 

There are numerous potential applications for polymers in biotechnology and medicine. The main commercial application of polymers is the prodnction of smart pills where the (aside from medical plastics) polymer shell protects the pill from the harmfiil action of the stomach contents bnt allows the pill to dissolve in the intestine. There is not yet any other prodnct on the market that applies smart polymers, but the interest in these applications is growing in both the academic community and indnstiy. The following applications are considered in this article ... 

Biotechnology can be defined as the use, modification or ffiimicing of naturally-occurring materials. In this context, several types of biotechnology-derived polymers exist, although they re not always in mass production. This paper will summarize some pertinent information for certain biotechnology derived polymers, such as wool, cotton, silk, rubber casein and the cellulosics. In addition, some potential new polymers, and polymer applications, from biotechnology are briefly discussed. 

Bionanocomposites Using Biodegradable Polymers from Microorganisms and Biotechnology... 

Biopolymers have been benefiting from the progress made in biotechnology in the recent past. Apart from biotechnology also emerging nanotechnology is about to offer new opportunities for bio-based polymers. 

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