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Lipase-catalyzed transformation of poly(epsilon-caprolactone) into cyclic dicaprolactone
H Ebata1, K Toshima, S Matsumura
1Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama 223-8522, Japan.
Abstract:
The enzymatic degradation and polymerization using an enzyme were carried out with respect to the establishment of a sustainable chemical recycling system for poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) which is a typical biodegradable synthetic plastic. The enzymatic transformation of PCL having an Mn of 110,000 using Candida antarctica lipase (lipase CA) in water-containing toluene at 40 degrees C afforded the corresponding cyclic dicaprolactone (DCL, 1,8-dioxacyclotetradecane-2,9-dione) in a yield of up to 97%. Thus the obtained DCL readily polymerized again using both the fresh and recovered lipase CAs.
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