Enzymatic Polymerization for Engineered Polysaccharides in Coatings

By Monica Harvey, Natnael Behabtu, Christian Lenges, Richard Milic, Jarmila Vlasakova

Enzymatic polymerization is emerging as a  scalable process to polymerize sucrose into  engineered polysaccharides. Polymer architecture and material properties can be controlled selectively to provide the foundation for novel differentiated biomaterial platforms.

One first example for such an engineered polysaccharide is alpha-1,3-polyglucose (alpha-1,3-glucan), which was prepared using this bioprocess.

This article describes initial results applying this polymer in architectural coating applications. With the ability to control polysaccharide particle morphology, crystallinity, as well as overall polymer functionality and particle size, it was envisioned that polysaccharides can be designed to provide performance advantages for paint applications.