There has been much interest in polymerization catalyzed by enzymes (“enzymatic polymerization”) as a new methodology of polymer syntheses.Recently,enzymatic synthesis of polyaromatics has been developed.Peroxidase-catalyzed polymerization of phenol and its various derivatives proceeded to give polymers with a complicated structure,which is hard to synthesize by conventional oxidative polymerizations.As a p-diphenol oxidase,laccase could be used to catalyze the oxidative reaction and macromolecule synthesis.The polymerization of 4-phenylphenol was carried out in the mixture of buffer (pH 4) and organic (15∶85,vol%) catalyzed by a laccase,produced from white rot fungus,at 35℃ for 48 h to form a polymer,2,6-poly (4-phenylphenol) with molecular weight above 80,000,which was determined by GPC.The polymer was analyzed by DSC to show that the glass transition temperature is 168.84℃ and the decomposition of this polymer took place at 301℃.The structure of this polymer is characterized by IR,H-NMR and 13 C-NMR spectra.It’s reasonable to conclude that polyphenol with phenol hydroxy groups on the molecular chains are formed through laccase enzymatic polymerization.
