Biopol/PHB/PLA (1 Viewer)

[s-tressed]

Hi,
I have an upcoming research task for chemistry. I'm trying to choose which biopolymer I should base my research on but I'm having a bit of trouble finding/understanding information.

Basically,
- What's the difference between PHB and Biopol? I have found that Biopol is made of PHB but I don't really understand the difference.
- What is the systematic name for Biopol? If you could link me to your source I would really appreciate it!
- Which of all of them is the easiest to find information on. I've heard PHB is but can someone else give me some input?

Sorry if this is asking too much. If you can please help!

 

[strawberrye]

A lot of people assumes PHB is the same as Biopol, I was one of them once, but basically the essential difference between PHB and Biopol is PHB is a stiff, brittle polymer that is constructed by certain bacterium such as Clostridium, Pseudomonas and Syntrophomonas, Biopol is made of PHB, but it is basically PHB reacted with bacterium Ralstonia eutrophus to form PHBV-which has a commercial name called Biopol, so the significant difference between PHB and Biopol(PHBV) is in their chemical structure which in turn results in very minute difference in chemical properties

-Biopol is not a valid chemistry name, it is a commercial trade name, so the systematic name is PHBV-which is poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-poly-3-hydroxyvalerate- you could confirm this by a quick search on google

-The easiest to find information on would arguably be PHB or PHBV-it doesn't really matter since they are so similar, but if you want to avoid these two, you can consider doing polylactic acid(PLA) if you want

By the way, most of the above information was got from HSC jacaranda chemistry-if you do end up confused by websites, sometimes consulting good old chemistry textbooks are much more trustworthy-hope this helps, if you have any more question, welcome to pm me

 

[s-tressed]

Thankyou so much!