Study of microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates using two-dimensional Fourier-transform infrared correlation spectroscopy

Abstract

The premelting behavior of bacterially synthesized polyester poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate), abbreviated as P(HB-co-HHx), was investigated by two-dimensional Fourier-transform infrared (2D FTIR) correlation spectroscopy. The temperature-dependent dynamic spectra were measured over a temperature range of 25-300°C. We focused our study on the thermally induced intensity fluctuations of bands for C=O (1700-1760 cm-1), C-H (2910-3010 cm-1) and C-O-C groups (1220-1310 cm-1) stretching vibrations. Changes of crystalline conformation due to the thermal perturbation could be detected by the intensity and location variations of those characteristic bands responding to the variations of dipole moments. 2D correlation analysis indicated that the appearance of fully amorphous component did not happen simultaneously with the disappearance of crystalline component, suggesting that there was an intermediate state between ordered crystalline and amorphous states in P(H B-co-HHx). © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci.