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Polycarbonate biodegradation by newly isolated Bacillus strains

Archives of Environmental Protection 2023 32 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Mojgan Arefi An, Arezoo Tahmourespour, Mohammadali Zia

Summary

Researchers isolated Bacillus strains capable of biodegrading polycarbonate from buried plastic films, demonstrating measurable polymer degradation through enzymatic activity including lipase and amylase production over the screening period.

Polymers

As polycarbonate is frequently used in many products, its accumulation in landfi lls is absolutely harmful to the environment.The aims of this study were the screening and isolation of polycarbonate-degrading bacteria (PDB) and the assessment of their ability in the degradation of polycarbonate (PC) polymers.Nine-month buried--PC fi lms were used for PDB isolation and identifi cation.The biodegradation ability of the isolates was determined by growth curve, clear zone formation, lipase and amylase production, AFM and FTIR.Bacillus cereus and Bacillus megaterium were identifi ed and considered as PDB.The degradation ability of B. megaterium was signifi cantly higher than that of B. cereus.Both were lipase and amylase positive.AFM and FTIR results showed the initiation of bacterial attachment.The PC biodegradation ability of isolates can be very effi cient.Finding such effi cient isolates (which was less studied before) will promise a decrease in plastic contamination in the future.

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