Polyhydroxyalkanoates based copolymers.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) belong to a family of natural polyesters and are produced under unbalanced growth conditions as intracellular carbon and energy reserves by a wide variety of microorganisms. Being biodegradable, biocompatible and environmental friendly thermoplastics, the PHAs are considered as future polymers to replace petrochemicals based plastics. In this review, the introduction section deals with the brief discussion on PHA nature, availability, raw materials for production, processing etc. This is followed by the discussions on modifications. The copolymer syntheses by bacterial and chemical methods have been discussed. Under chemical methods, unsaturated side chains and their derivatives, oligomer, coupling, macro-initiating, trans-esterification, radiation grafting, click chemistry, ring opening and several miscellaneous polymerization methods have been elaborated. A brief discussion on applications has been incorporated. The last section includes conclusion and future perspectives.