Stereomicrostructure-regulated biodegradable adhesives
Commercial adhesives are petroleum-based thermoset networks or nonbiodegradable thermoplastic hot melts, making them ideal targets for replacement by biodegradable alternatives. Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB) is a biorenewable and biodegradable alternative to conventional plastics, but microbial P3HB, which has a stereoperfect stereomicrostructure, exhibits no adhesion. In this study, by elucidating the fundamental relationship between chemocatalytically engineered P3HB stereomicrostructures and adhesion properties, we found that biodegradable syndio-rich P3HB exhibits high adhesion strength and outperforms common commercial adhesives, whereas syndiotactic, isotactic, or iso-rich P3HB shows no measurable adhesion. The syndio-rich stereomicrostructure brings about desired thermomechanical and viscoelastic properties of P3HB that enable strong adhesion to a range of substrates tested, including aluminum, steel, glass, and wood, and its performance is insensitive to molar mass and reprocessing or reuse.
Authors
- Ethan C. Quinn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9609-806X)
- Eugene Y.‐X. Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7512-3484)
- Gregg T. Beckham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3480-212X)
- Alexandra Grigoropoulos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7164-4095)
- Tiffany Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2054-2758)
- Jason S. DesVeaux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7926-6327)
- Jacob K. Kenny (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5883-2043)
- Ting Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2831-2095)
- Zhen Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1188-5209)
- Li Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9607-3877)
Institutions
- National Laboratory of the Rockies (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute (US)
- Colorado State University (US)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-01-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adr7175
- Citations
- 66
- Primary Topic
- biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 39.41
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Colorado State University
- Office of Science
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Basic Energy Sciences
- Bioenergy Technologies Office
- Office of Energy Efficiency
- Brookhaven National Laboratory