Biopolymers are polymers produced by living organisms. Cellulose, starch and chitin, proteins and peptides, and DNA and RNA are all examples of biopolymers, in which the monomeric units, respectively, are sugars, amino acids, and nucleotides. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Cellulose is both the most common biopolymer and the most common organic compound on Earth. About 33 percent of all plant matter is cellulose (the cellulose content of cotton is 90 percent and that of wood is 50 percent. [5]
Some biopolymers are biodegradable. That is, they are broken down into CO2 and water by microorganisms. In addition, some of these biodegradable biopolymers are compostable. That is, they can be put into an industrial composting process and will break down by 90% within 6 months. Biopolymers that do this can be marked with a 'compostable' symbol, under European Standard EN 13432 (2000). Packaging marked with this symbol can be put into industrial composting processes and will break down within 6 months (or less). An example of a compostable polymer is PLA film under 20 μm thick: films which are thicker than that do not qualify as compostable, even though they are biodegradable. A home composting logo may soon be established: this will enable consumers to dispose of packaging directly onto their own compost heap. [6]
Contents
1 Biopolymers versus polymers
2 Conventions and nomenclature
2.1 Polypeptides
2.2 Nucleic acids
2.3 Sugars
3 Structural characterization
4 Biopolymers as materials
5 Biopolymers as packaging
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Biopolymers versus polymers
A major but defining difference between polymers and biopolymers can be found in their structures. Polymers, including biopolymers, are made of repetitive units called monomers. Biopolymers often have a well defined structure, though this is not a defining characteristic (example:ligno-cellulose): The exact chemical composition and the sequence in which these units are arranged is called the primary structure, in the case of proteins. Many biopolymers spontaneously fold into characteristic compact shapes (see also "protein folding" as well as secondary structure and tertiary structure), which determine their biological functions and depend in a complicated way on their primary structures. Structural biology is the study of the structural properties of the biopolymers. In contrast most synthetic polymers have much simpler and more random (or stochastic) structures. This fact leads to a molecular mass distribution that is missing in biopolymers. In fact, as their synthesis is controlled by a template directed process in most in vivo systems all biopolymers of a type (say one specific protein) are all alike: they all contain the similar sequences and numbers of monomers and thus all have the same mass. This phenomenon is called monodispersity in contrast to the polydispersity encountered in synthetic polymers. As a result biopolymers have a polydispersity index of 1. [7]
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