Preparation, Characterization and Antimicrobial Activity of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)-g-Poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) Copolymers

Abstract

Graft polymerization of N-vinylpyrrolidone onto poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate), PHBV was carried out in solution. The evidence of grafting was provided by FTIR, and ¹H-NMR. The DSC results showed that the cold crystallization temperature from the glass state increased with increase of grafting %. TGA analysis revealed that the thermal stability of the host PHBV was improved remarkably with increasing extent of grafting. The swelling of the graft copolymer in water increases with increasing G%. The antibacterial activity of PHBV-g-PVP copolymers was improved dramatically with the extent of grafting. The biodegradability of PHBV and its graft copolymers was investigated in active soil.

Keywords:

• Antimicrobial activity
• Biodegradability
• Graft copolymers
• N-vinylpyrrolidone
• Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)
• Swelling
• Thermal analysis

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We gratefully acknowledge Dr. M. Z. Eweis, Botany department, Cairo University for his help in the antibacterial study.

Notes

^a Determined from run (II).

^b Crystallinity percentage according to the following equation: , where is the melting enthalpy of completely crystallized PHBV with reference value 146 J/g and W is the weight of PHBV in the PHBV-g-PVP copolymers.

(-) Non-detectable and behaves as preserved food material for bacteria.