Determination of monomer ratios in commercial polyhydroxyalkanoates using NMR and GC-MS

Plastic is one of the biggest contributors to pollution of the planet. Due to the low recyclability of oil-based plastics, most plastic is being disposed into the environment. According to plastic oceans, 10 million tons of plastic are dumped into oceans annually. Currently, researchers are developing recycling methods for oil-based plastics and are looking for biobased alternatives. One of these alternatives are a class of polymers called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA’s). PHA’s differ from other biobased polymers, due to the process of fabrication. PHA’s are a natural polymer, acting as an energy and carbon storage for different strains of bacteria. Functioning as an energy storage, nature can break down PHA’s and PHA-based waste. (1) Different companies are working on PHA’s production, but a large deviations in physical properties were observed. This research aims to establish a relationship between the chemical and physical properties of the different PHA’s, using gel permeability chromatography (GPC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS).