Lignocellulosic biomass offers the potential to obtain new building block molecules that are challenging to derive from petroleum and offer new functionality for material applications. As an example, β-ketoadipic acid (ßKA), a C6 dicarboxylic acid with a β-ketone, can be obtained from the biological conversion of sugars or with high atom efficiency from lignin-derived aromatic compounds. In this study, ßKA is produced from glucose in an engineered strain of <i>Pseudomonas putida </i>KT2440. Subsequently, ßKA is isolated from solution and polymerized into polyamines and polyesters. In polyamines, the presence of the β-ketone enables materials with higher glass transition temperatures and lower permeabilities than the incumbent adipic acid-based materials. Molecular simulations indicate that is the result of the rigidity imparted by the β-ketone. ßKA can also be copolymerized with PET to produce a material that maintains all the requisite PET properties while and enable potential biodegradability. Supply chain analysis is conducted on ßKA and its copolymers to reveal the sustainability benefits of implementing biomass-derived monomers in polymers.

β-ketoadipic acid as a platform molecule

2019 Fall National Meeting

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