Development of biodegradable polymer whose lifetime can be controlled by light

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26620152
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Green/Environmental chemistry
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Norikane Yasuo 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 電子光技術研究部門, 研究グループ長 (50425740)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KIKKAWA Yoshihiro 国立研究開発法人 産業技術総合研究所, 電子光技術研究部門, 主任研究員 (30373294)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 光応答性材料 / 生分解性高分子 / アゾベンゼン / 酵素

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Biodegradable polymer, which is decomposed to water and carbon dioxide with an aid of enzyme of microorganism, is expected to be in practical use as a low environmental load material. One of the issues for its practical application is a technology to control its lifetime. Previous research focused on classical methods such as degree of crystallinity, molecular weight, or blend. These approaches can only control the kinetics of enzymatic degradation, and ON/OFF switching of the degradation has not been achieved.
We have developed a materials that can switch between solid and liquid by light irradiation. Here we focused on the approach combining the photoresponsive materials and biodegradable polymer. We established a biodegradable polymer whose degradation can be initiated by light and thus its lifetime can be controlled.

Free Research Field

有機光化学