Chemo‐Biological Upcycling of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) to Multifunctional Coating Materials

• DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202100909
• Publication Date: 2021-08-02T14:13:29Z
• Authors: Hee Taek Kim; Mi Hee Ryu; Ye Jean Jung; Sooyoung Lim; Hye Min Song; Jeyoung Park; Sung Yeon Hwang; Hoe‐Suk Lee; Young Joo Yeon; Bong Hyun Sung; Uwe T. Bornscheuer; Si Jae Park; Jeong Chan Joo; Dongyeop X. Oh
• Keywords: Depolymerization; Biotransformation

Chemo-biological upcycling of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) developed in this study includes the following key steps: chemo-enzymatic PET depolymerization, biotransformation terephthalic acid (TPA) into catechol, and its application as a coating agent. Monomeric units were first produced through glycolysis bis(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET), mono(2-hydroxyethyl) (MHET), oligomers, enzymatic hydrolysis these glycolyzed products using Bacillus subtilis esterase (Bs2Est). Bs2Est efficiently hydrolyzed TPA enzyme for depolymerization. Furthermore, catechol solution from via whole-cell (Escherichia coli) could be directly used functional on various substrates after simple cell removal culture medium without further purification water-evaporation. This work demonstrates proof-of-concept strategy combination chemo-biological conversion waste multifunctional materials.