Acetophenone

Injection-grade polyoxymethylene copolymer (Hostaform C52021, Celanese Co., Dallas, TX, USA) granules, with a degree of crystallinity of 55%, as determined via density (see Section 2.3.7), were used as the feed material for the solution-dissolution process. The solvents used for screening were acetophenone (99%, Alfa Aesar, Ward Hill, MA, USA), triacetin (99%, Alfa Aesar, Ward Hill, MA, USA), benzaldehyde (≥99.5%, Carl Roth, Karlsruhe, Germany), benzyl benzoate (99%, Alfa Aesar, Ward Hill, MA, USA), benzyl ether (98%, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA), and diethylene glycol n-butyl ether acetate (DEGBEA) (≥97%, Carl Roth, Karlsruhe, Germany). Technical ethanol (96%, VWR, Radnor, PA, USA) was used as the washing solvent. All solvents were used without further purification.

Ultrapure 18.3 MΩ⋅cm water used for these experiments was produced from a Zeneer Power III TOC system (Human Corp., Seoul, Korea). All the following reagents were purchased from Sigma Aldrich, unless stated otherwise, and were standard grade: butyl acetate, hexanal (Alfa Aesar, Haverhill, MA, USA), butanol, 3-methyl-1-butanol (Alfa Aesar), (E)-hex-2-enal (Alfa Aesar), hexanol, (Z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (Alfa Aesar), nonanal, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, acetophenone, α-terpineol, benzyl alcohol, 2-phenylethanol, ethyl tetradecanoate, ethyl dodecanoate, methyl 2-hydroxybenzoate (Alfa Aesar), citronellol, ethyl decanoate, benzaldehyde (Alfa Aesar), ethyl octanoate, ethyl heptanoate, isoamyl acetate, limonene, 2-methyl-1-butanol, ethyl hexanoate, ethyl acetate, ethyl butanoate, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Franke, Italy), (NH₄)₂HPO₄ (Franke, Italy), K₂S₂O₅ (Franke, Italy), tartaric acid, polyvinylpolypyrrolidone (Alfa Aesar), sodium azide (Alfa Aesar), NaOH, Na₂PO₄(H₂O)₂, citric acid, HCl, 3-octanol, MeOH, CH₂Cl₂, β-glucosidase enzyme (Ecozim AROM, CRC Biotek, Roma, Italy), hydrocarbon mixture from C8–C23 (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA).