Gas Permeable Chromatography

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Gas Permeable Chromatography (GPC)

The molecular weight and the polydispersity index are important parameters that will determine the quality of the polymer. The PHB extracted using chloroform was analyzed using GPC and the weight average molecular weight (Mw) obtained was 1.04 x 106. This value hinted that PHB synthesize by C. necator H16 cultivated with CPKO as sole carbon source was of relatively high Mw. Since it has been acknowledged that chloroform extraction cause negligible degradation of PHB; therefore these values were assumed to be intact molecular weight. In order to evaluate the effect of biologically recovery method on Mw, the PHB granules was subjected to GPC analysis and the Mw achieved was 1.23 x 106. Interestingly, polymer granules with slightly higher Mw were obtained with biological recovery method. The polydispersity index (Mw/ Mn) which represents the molecular weight distribution was also examined. However, relatively higher Mw attained with biological recovery method, the (3.01) when compared to chloroform extraction (1.28).

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

The thermal properties of powdered faeces were investigated by DSC analysis because this information is important in polymer processing. The melting (Tm) and glass transition temperature (Tg) of the PHB present in the faeces was measured to be 167 °C and 3.92 °C respectively. The melting temperature of the biologically recovered PHB was found to be slightly lower when compared to values (173 - 180 °C) that were reported in the literature (Doi et al., 1995; Hahn et al., 1995; Sudesh et al., 2000).Yet, the attained value was close to the range of 160-171 °C that has been reported by Vallapil et al (2009) using different recovery methods.

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