Enzyme-catalyzed synthesis of malonate polyesters and their use as metal chelating materials

Abstract

Following the environmental problems caused by non-degradable plastics there is a need to synthesise greener and more sustainable polymers. In this work we describe, for the first time, the facile...

Characterizing Ion-Polymer Interactions in Aqueous Environment with Electric Fields

“…Synthetic metal-chelating polymers are an important technology to neutralize and remove metal contaminants from solution. − Several polymers have been synthesized and tested for metal sequestration applications, − using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) − to measure the binding thermodynamics of polymers to metal ions. While ITC enables the direct measurement of heat associated with metal ion binding in solution, it is a global technique that determines the total entropy and cannot separate the competing effects of coupled events (e.g., ion binding versus (de)solvation versus polymer conformation changes). , Computational approaches can enable greater insight into polymer-metal ion interactions by focusing on time and length scales that are inaccessible to ITC or other experimental techniques. , Atomistic simulations such as molecular dynamics (MD) are well-suited to the simulation of entropic effects, − but the quantification of functional properties from MD is nontrivial. .25ex2ex F⃗ false( r⃗ , t false) = q E⃗ total false( r⃗ , t false) = q false( E⃗ water ( r⃗ , t ) + E⃗ polymer ( r⃗ , t ) + ... false) = q ∑ k E⃗ k false( r⃗ , t false) …”

“…Four multichain, (90 Å) 3 , cubic simulation cells were then built by randomly selecting one of the five polymer chains. The Debye length (λ D ) is defined as…”

Environmentally Friendly Synthesis of Cardanol-Based Polyesters and Their Application as Poly(lactic acid) Additives

“…In this work, the feasibility of the polymerization process by enzymatic catalysis was first investigated, applying the reaction times commonly used for metal-catalyzed synthesis of bio-based platform molecules 22 and comparing the properties of the polymers obtained by the two methods. The temperatures used in the two processes were instead those typically used in the above approaches, i.e., 85 °C for the enzymatic method 21 and 150 °C for the metal-catalyzed polymerization approach. 22 We then focused on systems prepared with the enzyme-based catalyst, investigating the influence of time, type of ester, and solvent used for the workup procedure on the final material properties.…”

“…The polyester was synthesized from DMS and a cardanol-based diol by using the conventional catalyst titanium (IV) butoxide. The reaction was carried out with a similar equipment but under conditions which promote the efficiency of the catalyst, as previously reported . Specifically, 1.609 g (0.006 mol) of cardanol diol and 0.886 g (0.006 mol) of DMS were added to a 25 mL round-bottom flask under a nitrogen atmosphere.…”

“…The reaction was carried out with a similar equipment but under conditions which promote the efficiency of the catalyst, as previously reported. 21 Specifically, 1.609 g (0.006 mol) of cardanol diol and 0.886 g (0.006 mol) of DMS were added to a 25 mL round-bottom flask under a nitrogen atmosphere. The system was heated to 150 °C, and after a few minutes of magnetic stirring, 0.2 wt % (0.005 g) of titanium (IV) butoxide was added.…”