Alteration of Acrylonitrile-Methylacrylate-Butadiene Terpolymer by Nocardia rhodochrous and Penicillium notatum.

[C]Barex-210, a terpolymer of acrylonitrile, methylacrylate, and butadiene, was tested for bioconversion. Powdered samples of polymer, each specifically C labeled at different carbon atoms of the polymer, were incubated with either Nocardia rhodochrous or Penicillium notatum in an enriched growth medium for various periods of time. After 6 months of incubation, the C-labeled polymer was transformed from a high-molecular-weight material completely soluble in dimethyl formamide (DMF) into both a lower-molecular-weight form still soluble in DMF and a second form that was no longer soluble in DMF. The amount of C-labeled carbon atoms converted into DMF-insoluble material was 8% of the backbone carbon-carbon atoms and 12% of the side-chain nitrile and acrylate atoms from the acrylonitrile-methylacrylate copolymer and 60% of the elastomer (acrylonitrile-butadiene copolymer) atoms. Metabolism of the polymer was not established from measurements of metabolic CO(2). Evolution of CO(2) amounted to only 0.3, 0.6, 1.8, and 3.3% of these four fractions, respectively. Although the transformation of high-molecular-weight polymer into DMF-insoluble material was rapid in the early stages of microbial growth, the accompanying CO(2) evolution was much slower. Further evidence of polymer alteration was indicated by the infrared spectrum of the insoluble material, which showed a disappearance of the nitrile and methylacrylate peaks.