CORRELATING THE KINETICS OF BRANCHED POLYMER SYNTHESIS WITH A DESIRED CHARACTERISTIC OF THE POLYMER

摘要

The present invention relates to the analysis of the structure and synthesisofbranched polymers of biological origin and the effects of these parameters onthe end useof the branched polymer. In particular, the present invention relates to thecorrelation ofthe kinetics of starch production to the usefulness of a particular starch ina given food ornon-food application. The methods of the present invention are capable ofshowing therates of all the different enzymatic processes that lead to a particularbranched polymerstructure. The present invention surprisingly teaches that the rate co-efficients ofpolymer chain propagation, termination and/or branching, as used in freeradicalsynthetic polymer chemistry, can be used for analysing the kinetics ofbranched polymersynthesis in biological systems. In one aspect, the present invention providesa method ofanalysing the kinetics of branched polymer synthesis, which comprises (l)determiningthe absolute molecular weight distribution of individual branches of apolymer, and/oranother property(ies) characterizing starch polymer microstructure, and (ii)using theabsolute molecular weight distribution, and/or another property(ies)characterizing starchpolymer microstructure, data obtained from step (i) to calculate the ratecoefficient or rateof at least one of chain propagation, termination or branching duringformation of thepolymer, wherein the polymer is of biological origin. The data obtained fromthismethod can be used as an indicator of the kinetics of branched polymersynthesis.Polymers obtained from different biological origins, especially differentstrains and/ormutants of the same species of organism and/or under different growthconditions, can beanalysed and variations in the kinetics compared between the different sourcesof thepolymer. These branched polymers from different sources can also be tested fortheirsuitability for various end-uses (desirable characteristics) of the branchedpolymer.These two factors, kinetics and suitability for a particular end-use, can thenbe comparedto establish a correlation between the rate of at least one of chainpropagation,termination or branching and suitability for a particular end use. Thisultimately allows apolymer to be analysed by the methods of the invention to ascertain suitableend-uses forthe polymer without the need to conduct extensive trials on different end-uses, and/or testa polymer for a given end-use when it will clearly not be suitable for thatend-use aspredicted by the kinetic analysis.