Partial depolymerization of hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose for production of low molar mass polymer chains

Marleny Caceres; Eddy Petit; André Deratani

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115461

Partial depolymerization of hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose for production of low molar mass polymer chains

Carbohydr Polym. 2020 Feb 1:229:115461. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115461. Epub 2019 Oct 18.

Authors

Marleny Caceres¹, Eddy Petit², André Deratani³

Affiliations

¹ Institut Européen des Membranes, IEM, UMR-5635, ENSCM, CNRS, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France. Electronic address: mcaceres@eng.au.dk.
² Institut Européen des Membranes, IEM, UMR-5635, ENSCM, CNRS, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France. Electronic address: eddy.petit@umontpellier.fr.
³ Institut Européen des Membranes, IEM, UMR-5635, ENSCM, CNRS, Univ Montpellier, Montpellier, France. Electronic address: andre.deratani@umontpellier.fr.

PMID: 31826390
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.115461

Abstract

Low molar mass (LMM) biopolymers are highly required to design functional nanomaterials, which mainly find application in biomedical fields. However, the synthesis of LMM polymer is a challenging task. In this work, we report a partial enzymatic depolymerization process which allows to produce a series of LMM hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose (HPMC) polymer, with a weight average molar mass (M_w) under and over 10,000 g mol^-1 and low dispersity (Ɖ < 1.5). Variation of the starting HPMC grade, reaction time, and enzyme concentration were the key parameters to control the M_w and yield of the target molecules. This approach provides a versatile way of producing LMM HPMCs with varying degrees of substitution, and having a single reactive aldehyde function at one chain extremity. LMM HPMC can find for instance application as building blocks for the development of new functional molecular architectures.

Keywords: Controlled polymer; Endoglucanase; HPMC; Hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose; Low molar mass polymer.