Enzymatic Synthesis of Muconic Acid-Based Polymers: Trans, Trans-Dimethyl Muconate and Trans, β-Dimethyl Hydromuconate
, Csaba Fodor 1, Indra Karno Adi 1,2,†, Albert J. J. Woortman 1, Jur van Dijken 1 and Katja Loos 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper presents very clear detailed research results about enzyme-assisted polycondensation of two diesters with glycols of different lengths. In spite of scarce yield, the obtained polymers showed interesting properties and look promising to several possible uses. In fact, often enzyme-promoted polymerizations suffer this limitation but it's difficult to polymerize the studied monomers under different conditions, due to the lack of stability of the conjugated double bonds.
The experimental work was sensibly arranged and it is described clearly in the paper. No issues have been identified and then I suggest the publication of the manuscript as it is.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Editor,
in this paper authors reported an eco-friendly strategy that uses enzyme catalysis to design biobased unsaturated (co)polyesters from muconic acid derivatives. The paper is very interesting, well organized and provides new and novel data. It is a complete work with emphasis to be given to monomer and polymers characterization using several techniques. For all these I propose to accept it for publication as it is.
