Biodegradation of water-soluble polymers by active sludge has been examined. The polymers including hydroxyl groups and carboxyl groups in their side chains and polypeptides, etc. Results showed the more carboxyl groups in the polymers, the easier the biodegradation occurs in the hydrolysate of vinyl acetate and methyl acrylate copolymers. Furthermore, biodegradation rarely occurs of higher molecular weight, namely polypeptide. This tendency is more appreciable in the synthetic polymers prepared by heat polycondensation method, than that of polypeptides synthesized by on N-Carboxy amino acid anhydrides method.
Some organic materials such as plastic, rubber and foods emit ultra weak luminescence (so called chemiluminescence) during their degradation proceeding very slowly. We have developed a Weak-Luminescence Spectrometer to obtain precise spectrum data for the chemiluminescence. This apparatus was constructed on the principle of multi channel Furier-transform spectrometer combining CCD image sensor and Savart plate interferometer. Some typical chemiluminescence spectrum data for the cooking oil and some medicines were observed with the Weak-luminescence Spectrometer.