Biodegradation of Poly(ester urethane)s by Bacillus subtilis

Polyurethanes (PURs) are polymers that can be generated by a step-growth polyadditionreaction of diisocyanates with polyols. The number of well-developed chemical procedures applicable to their manufacture, and the diversity of chemical structures in which polyurethanes can be built, account for the widespread use of these materials in the last few decades for both domestic and technical applications due to its excellent mechanical and thermal properties and their high resistance to the climatic changes. Nevertheless, its high resistance to degradation in aqueous media or bymicroorganism constitutes not only a great disadvantage for its use as material in medical applications (vascular grafts, artificial heart diaphragms, valves, catheters…) but also as one of the sources of the pollution of the environment. In this work, we report the degradation ofa commercial poly (ester-urethane) by microorganisms isolated from cedar wood. This is the first study that demonstrates the degradation of polyurethane by isolated microorganisms from wood. Analyses were carried out by Infrared spectroscopy.