In this work a kinetic study was carried out of the molecular weight reduction of poly(3-hydroxybutirate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBHV) in three different methodologies: acid hydrolysis using hydrochloric acid, transesterification with ethylene glycol or hexylene glycol and reduction in the presence of sodium borohydride (NaBH4). The following process parameters were investigated: time, temperature, type and concentration of catalysts. The results of molecular weight reduction were fitted with a n-order kinetic model. The kinetics analysis has shown that the NaBH4 reduction was the most efficient in terms of reaction rate in comparison with the other methods.
Polyhydroxyalkanoates; PHBHV; molecular weight reduction; kinetic analysis
