Marica Mikuljan and dr. Matthew Schwarzkopf, InnoRenew CoE researchers, together with dr. David DeVallance, dr. Esakkiammal Sudha Esakkimuthu and dr. Veerapandian Ponnuchamy, recently published a scientific article »Fungal enzyme degradation of lignin-PLA composites: Insights from experiments and molecular docking simulations,« in Heliyon.

Fungal enzymes are effective in degrading various polymeric materials. In the study researchers assessed the initial degradation of composites consisting of lignin-poly (PLA) with both unmodified lignin and oxypropylated lignin. This approach provided insights into the degradation process using fungi and has the potential to be applied to different polymeric composites.