Degradation of synthetic polymers: Microbial approach

Microbial degradation of natural and of new synthetic polymers.

In landfills, deposited waste material is usually faced with strictly anoxic conditions. This means that the design of new biodegradable polymers must take into consideration that degradation should be possible especially in the absence of molecular oxygen. Poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate is depolymerized by the anaerobic fermenting bacterium Ilyobacter delafieldii through an extracellular hydrolase....

Microbial degradation of synthetic recalcitrant compounds.

Synthetic compounds, particularly highly chlorinated aromatics, comprise the bulk of the environmental pollutants that somehow must be removed from the environment. Microbial degradation of such compounds is usually very slow, making them highly persistent in nature. Some synthetic compounds, with a lower degree of chlorination are, however, biodegradable; biochemical, genetic, and molecular st...

Lignin degradation: A microbial approach

Natural Degradation of Polymers

Polymers are a broad class of materials which are made from repeating units of smaller molecules called monomers. Polymers can be natural in origin, such as the lignin of tree branches, the starches of homemade bread, or the chitin of lobster shells. Other polymers are called synthetic, because they are made by humans from naturally-occurring materials. Examples include polyesters used in cloth...

Synthetic Non-Biodegradable Polymers:

Synthetic polymers have been widely used in making various medical devices, such as disposable supplies, implants, drug delivery systems and tissue engineering scaffolds. The advantages of using polymers, as biomaterials, are their manufacturability. Polymers are easy to fabricate into various sizes and shapes compared to metals and ceramics. They are also light in weight and with a wide range ...