posted on 2022-12-23, 21:03authored bySeyed
Mohammad Davachi, Amir Mokhtare, Hooman Torabi, Mojtaba Enayati, Ted Deisenroth, Toan Van Pho, Liangliang Qu, Katrin-Stephanie Tücking, Alireza Abbaspourrad
Enzymatic degradation
of polymers has advantages over
standard
degradation methods, such as soil burial and weathering, which are
time-consuming and cannot provide time-resolved observations. We have
developed a microfluidic device to study the degradation of single
microparticles. The enzymatic degradation of poly (1,4-butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) microparticles was studied using
Novozym 51032 cutinase. PBAT microparticles were prepared via an oil-in-water
emulsion solvent removal method, and their morphology and chemical
composition were characterized. Then, microparticles with varying
diameters of 30–60 μm were loaded into the microfluidic
chip. Enzyme solutions at different concentrations were introduced
to the device, and changes in the size and transparency of PBAT microparticles
were observed over time. The physicochemical properties of degraded
products were analyzed by FT-IR, NMR, mass spectrometry, and differential
scanning calorimetry. The degradation process was also performed in
bulk, and the results were compared to those of the microfluidic method.
Our analysis confirms that the degradation process in both bulk and
microfluidic methods was similar. In both cases, degradation takes
place on aliphatic and soft segments of PBAT. Our findings serve as
a proof of concept for a microfluidic method for easy and time-resolved
degradation analysis, with degradation results comparable to those
of conventional bulk methods.