The explosion of plastic into the commercial world seventy years ago revolutionized several industries; yet has led to plastic debris being found in the most remote places on Earth. The commercial availability of common synthetic plastics, such as polyethylene terephthalate, high-density polyethylene, and polyvinyl chloride, coupled with the damage plastics cause to the environment, has created a surge in demand for new materials like biodegradable biopolymers. Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is a biopolymer that shows promising properties that allow for degradation of the polymer into monomer units. With the economic dependency and environmental burden of plastic, it is important to understand the degradability of these biopolymers, like PHB, should they be unexpectedly exposed to abiotic environmental stressors. This work seeks to quantify the interplay between enzymatic and photodegradation mechanisms to better understand the role of photodegradation on the enzymatic rates. Specifically, we investigated the enzymatic hydrolysis of triglyceride lipase, a hydrolase, on photo-irradiated PHB. Hydrolysis on irradiated PHB was monitored by embedding a fluorogenic probe and monitoring solution fluorescence as an indicator of enzymatic breaking of polyester bonds. We observed changes to the fluorescence signatures as the results of photodegradation. Through this work, we aim to better understand the environmental degradation of these promising polymer technologies.

Quantifying the enzymatic and photodegradation of polyhydroxybutyrate

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