PHA

Polyhydroxy Alkanoates

Overview

Applications

Comparison

Chemical formula

Specific gravity

1.21 (PHBH)

Thermal properties

Tg(℃)

126~

Tm(℃)

Characteristics

Compost biodegradability

Marine biodegradability

Commentary

PHA: Polyhydroxyalkanoic acid is the generic name for "microbially produced polyesters," which are produced by refining polymers that accumulate in the body of microorganisms, and include a variety of copolymers such as
PHB:Poly3-hydroxybutanoicacid or poly3-hydroxybutyric acid
PHV: polyhydroxyvaleric acid, orpoly3-hydroxypentanoic acidPHH: polyhydroxycaproic acid, or poly3-hydroxyhexanoic acid
PHO: polyhydroxycaprylic acid
PHBH: Poly3-hydroxybutanoicacid-co(copolymerized)-3-hydroxyhexanoic acid
It is also a bio-derived and biodegradable bioplastic.

Key points

Not only is it easily biodegradable in soil, but it is also biodegradable in the sea.

PHB, the base polymer in PHA has a close "melting point" and "decomposition start temperature."

Therefore, it has a narrow processing temperature range.

For this reason, rather than being used alone as a molding material, it is used as a crystallization nucleating agent for various PHA copolymers and other biodegradable resins to improve molding processability.