ABIOTIC AND BIOTIC DEGRADATION OF ALIPHATIC POLYESTERS FROM PETRO VERSUS GREEN RESOURCES

Aliphatic polyesters are degradable by abiotic and/or biotic hydrolysi s. The accessibility of a polymer to degradative attack by living orga nisms is not dependent on its origin, but on its molecular composition and architecture. Synthetic polymers with intermittent ester linkage (e.g. polyesters, polyurethanes etc.) are accessible to biodegradative attack of esterase. On the other hand aliphatic polyesters an also qu ickly degraded by a pure abiotic hydrolysis. The results from abiotic and biotic hydrolyses of polycaprolactone (PCL) (from ''petro'' resour ce), poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) (from ''gr een'' resources) are presented and discussed with the respect to rate of degradation, molecular weight changes and degradation product patte rn. For the environmental consequences, the type of formed degradation products ore of importance and not the origin of the polymer.