Is cellulose a biopolymer? (1 Viewer)

[d00d]

This is the dot point in the syllabus:
* Use avilable evidence to gather and present data from secondary sources and anlyse progress in the development and use of a named biopolymer. this analysis should name the specific enzymes used organism used to synthesise the material......

i want to pick cellulose because pathways has stacks of info on it but looking at the other textbooks cellulose seems to general..... do i have to use a more specific example such as PLA or biopol?

 

[Constip8edSkunk]

cellulose is a biopolymer

honestly, I never thought of using cellulose for that point actually coz i always had this impression of it being refering to currently researching/ developing or recently developed bioploymers like PLA and PHAs, but in re-reading the dot point, i supposed you could use cellulose...... im not really sure

 

[kini mini]

Originally posted by d00d
This is the dot point in the syllabus:
* Use avilable evidence to gather and present data from secondary sources and anlyse progress in the development and use of a named biopolymer. this analysis should name the specific enzymes used organism used to synthesise the material......

Cellulose won't be acceptable IMO - the dot-point seems to indicate that the examiners are looking for an artificial biopolymer, hence "synthesise the material". Cellulose is a natural biopolymer, you couldn't really discuss its development! I haven'tr heard of anyone synthesising cellulose. Just do biopol, PHB-PHV, or one of the other examples in the text.

 

[iambored]

yep it is a biopolymer but u can't talk about it because its natural, man hasn't really done much with it
PHB seems 2 b a popular one 2 talk about, or PHA, whateva u can get the most info on

 

[abdooooo!!!]

Originally posted by iambored
yep it is a biopolymer but u can't talk about it because its natural, man hasn't really done much with it

all biopolymers are natural.

 

[CHUDYMASTER]

Hehe, yeah, it's good someone pointed that out. "artificial biopolymer"!? But I see what Kini Mini was getting at. PHB and PHA (although produced naturally by A. Eutrophus) can't exactly be harvested by humans unless they are manipulated artificially by restricting their nutrients.

But as for the research aspect of cellulose, there's heaps in that area! For example, they're currently working on efficiently harvesting cellulose for the glucose monomer units so they can produce ethanol in that respect, but currently it's not economically viable.

So as for the dotpoint, I think they do expect you to talk about PHB/PHA, so stick with them when asked about "biopolymers" and you can't go wrong! There's not much to know anyways.

 

[inasero]

kini has a point there....cellulose IS a biopolymer consisting of glucose monomers....but you're better off using synthesized ones...poly-beta-hydroxybutanoate is a good example

 

[kini mini]

Well maybe it is synthesised....

albeit not with biological agents

Russian chemists from the Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology and Krasnoyarsk State University have optimized an ecologically safe method of cellulose production from sawdust and adapted this method to produce microcrystalline cellulose.
Microcrystalline cellulose is widely used in medicine, pharmaceutical and food industries and in the preparation of sorbents, emulsions, dyes and polymeric coverings.

The process includes wood delignification using acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide with a catalyst titanum (IV) oxide (the size of the wood sawdust particls was 25 mm).

To obtain a cellulose product of high quality with an acceptable yield, the following parameters should be used: mole ratio of hydrogen peroxide:acetic acid, 0.3; temperature 120130 C; pulping time 23 hours; catalyst concentration 2% for sulfuric acid or 0.5% for titanum (IV) oxide; and a liquor:wood ratio from 10:1 to 20:1. These conditions produced microcrystalline cellulose.

The novel method combines the stages of wood catalytic delignification by a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and acetic acid and the solvolysis of obtained product to remove amorphous cellulose. This is an alternative way to the more traditional method of removing lignin from a wood biomass.

It allowed them to obtain qualitative cellulose without sulfur-containing reagents. The work was partly supported by the European Commission in the framework of INCO-COPERNICUS program (contract No. ERBIC 15 CT 0804) and by a program at Russian Universities (grant No.05.01.021).

from The Alchemist

 

[d00d]

has anyone got any websites on PHA? the textbooks (pathways, conquering and context) all talk about it but only briefly, i need more info