抄録
Poly（［R］-3-hydroxybutyrate）（P（3HB））and its copolymers are accumulated by a wide variety of microorganisms as intracellular carbon and energy materials, and are extensively studied as biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastics. Recently, we succeeded in obtaining strong fibers and films by new drawing techniques from microbial polyesters produced by both wild-type and recombinant bacteria. The improvement of mechanical properties of fibers and films is due not only to the orientation of molecular chains but also to the generation of a planar zigzag conformation. The structure of strong fiber with tensile strength of over 1.0 GPa was analyzed by micro-beam X-ray diffraction and X-ray micro-tomography with synchrotron radiation. The strong fibers and films were completely degraded in environment or by extracellular PHB depolymerases. In this article, I present the processing, mechanical properties, highly ordered structure and biodegradability of strong fibers and films produced from microbial polyesters.
