title: Quantitative analysis of bacterial medium-chain-length poly([R]-3-hydroxyalkanoates) by gas chromatography.
abstract: Standard chromatographic methods for the quantification of bacterial poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA) proved to be inappropriate for the analysis of medium-chain-length PHA (mcl-PHA). Transesterification catalyzed by protic acids is not quantitative for mcl-PHA under common conditions due to slow reaction kinetics and formation of side-products in case of functionalized side-chains. To circumvent these limitations, an improved method for the quantification of mcl-PHA by GC-FID was developed. Boron trifluoride in methanol was successfully applied to quantitatively methanolyse different mcl-PHA (recovery >94%). This novel method is well-suited for the analysis of purified mcl-PHA as well as for mcl-PHA in biomass.
authors.affiliation: Empa, Materials Science and Technology, Laboratory for Biomaterials, Lerchenfeldstr. 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Furrer
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hany
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rentsch
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grubelnik
authors.forename: Katinka
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ruth
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Panke
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zinn
mesh_terms: D000473:Alkanes / Q000032:analysis*; D001419:Bacteria / Q000737:chemistry*; D002849:Chromatography, Gas / Q000379:methods*; D007700:Kinetics
chemical_list: D000473:Alkanes