Kinetics of the enzymatic degradation of poly(vinyl acetate) in solution

The enzymatic degradability of poly(vinyl acetate) was investigated in toluene solutions at various temperatures with hog pancreas lipase. The polymer degraded by specific scission to yield oligomeric products with a molecular weight of 700. Continuous distribution kinetics were used to determine the rate coefficients. The variation of the rate coefficients with the temperature indicated an optimum at 55degreesC. The p-toluene sulfonic acid catalyzed degradation of poly(vinyl acetate) was also investigated. The degradation mechanism was random chain scission, and the energy of activation for degradation was determined from the variation of the rate coefficients with the temperature. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.