An Empirical Model for Predicting Biodegradation Profiles of Glycopolymers

Abstract

Pollution caused by plastic materials has a great impact on the environment. The biodegradation process is a good treatment solution for common polymers and biodegradation susceptible ones. The present work introduces new insight into the biodegradation process from a mathematical point of view, as it envisions a new empirical model for this complex process. The model is an exponential function with two different time constants and a time delay, which follows the weight loss profile of the polymer during the biodegradation process. Moreover, this function can be generated as the output variable of a dynamic exogenous system described through state equations. The newly developed models displayed a good fit against the experimental data, as shown by statistical indicators. In addition, the new empirical model was compared to kinetics models available in the literature and the correlation coefficients were closest to 1 for the new empirical model in all discussed cases. The mathematical operations were performed in the MATLAB Simulink environment.

Sustainable Design of Structural and Functional Polymers for a Circular Economy

“…[185] The degradation modelled was surface erosion, and so could not be described as true biodegradation in the sense of circularity. In most cases, literature describing biodegradability prediction of large molecules does not use microbial biodegradability as its output, but structural descriptions of degradation such as weight loss, [186] or "biodegradation" describing enzymatic or hydrolytic degradation in vivo. [187] This still is a clear deficit, and future research should consistently measure biodegradation in terms of e.g., CO 2 evolution.…”

Nachhaltiges Design von Struktur‐ und Funktionspolymeren für die Kreislaufwirtschaft

“…[185] Bei dem modellierten Abbau handelte es sich um Oberflächenerosion, so dass er nicht als echter biologischer Abbau im Sinne der Kreislaufwirtschaft bezeichnet werden kann. In den meisten Fällen wird in der Literatur zur Vorhersage der biologischen Abbaubarkeit großer Moleküle nicht die mikrobielle biologische Abbaubarkeit als Ergebnis verwendet, sondern strukturelle Beschreibungen des Abbaus wie Gewichtsverlust [186] oder Daten enzymatischen oder hydrolytischen Abbaus in vivo. [187] Dies ist immer noch ein deutliches Defizit, und künftige Forschungsarbeiten sollten den biologischen Abbau konsequent messen, z.…”