Abstract
By exposure to the environment of polymer wastes, the disintegration and degradation processes take place by simultaneous and concurrent mechanisms, as photodegradation, hydrolisys, thermooxidation and biodegradation. The latter may be described as a complex process taking place in several steps. In a first step of the biodegradation process, the polymer with low molecular mass suffer a hydrolisys reaction enzymatically catalyzed, resulting in a mixture of oligomers and intermediates with low molecular mass and different chemical structures. The next step is preceded by microorganisms invasion, transforming the carbon and the hydrogen of polymers and respective intermediates into CO2 and H2O. In the study there are presented some reaction and initiation mechanisms of the biodegradation processes of some synthetic polymers susceptible to biodegradation.
Keywords: biodegradation; enzymatic degradation; initiation mechanism; hydrolysis reactions; microorganisms