Abstract
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are storage granules found in bacteria that are essentially hydroxy fatty acid polyesters. PHA molecules appear in variety of structures, and amongst all types of PHAs, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) is used in versatile fields as it is a biodegradable, biocompatible, and ecologically safe thermoplastic. The unique physicochemical characteristics of these PHAs have made them applicable in nanotechnology, tissue engineering, and other biomedical applications. In this review, the optimization, extraction, and characterization of PHAs are described. Their production and application in nanotechnology are also portrayed in this review, and the precise and various production methods of PHA-based nanoparticles, such as emulsion solvent diffusion, nanoprecipitation, and dialysis are discussed. The characterization techniques such as UV-Vis, FTIR, SEM, Zeta Potential, and XRD are also elaborated.
Highlights
They are produced continuously through a chain of chemical conversions that occur in the cell and PHA is accumulated within the cytoplasm of the cell as energy reserves
Beun et al [48] made a concerted effort to understand the PHA produced by the biological floc in the process of converting a carbon supply, and eventually concluded that a fluctuating carbon source leads to the disordered production of PHA
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) can be used to study the morphology of the PHA inside the cell as it provides high resolution three-dimensional (3D) images without the need for complicated sample preparation. It can be coupled with an energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detector to provide an elemental analysis of the PHA and has been used extensively in the field of polymer sciences [138]
Summary
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are polyesters that contain a characteristic bond of esters, which are accumulated as carbon and energy reserve along with limited nitrogen source and assist in providing energy [1,2,3,4,5]. The properties of Short Chain Length (scl-PHAs) are close to conventional plastics because of its physical and mechanical properties [12]. They are crystalline in nature and are usually rigid, hard structures. Yield Bioscience is a company involved in developing new technology in the agricultural field [19] They have analyzed a copolymer for trading on a large scale and to overcome the limitation in the production cost. The accumulation of PHA in Cupriavidus necator was almost equivalent to the dry weight of the entire biomass [20]
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