Biodegradation of compositions of polyethylene and poly(ethylene terephthalate) with Bionolle® or starch
Bożena Nowak, Jolanta Pająk, Sylwia Łabużek
Quarterly No. 3, 2010 pages 224-228
DOI:
keywords: biodegradation, polyethylene, poly(ethylene terephthalate), Bionolle ®, starch, composition
abstract The development of biodegradable packaging industry will allow, at least in part, to solve the problem of nonbiodagradable plastics in dumps. The aim of this study was to examine whether the modification of synthetic polymers such as polyethylene and poly(ethylene terephthalate), with starch or synthetic aliphatic polyester Bionolle® will increase the degree of the biodegradation of those resistant to environmental factors plastics. Biodegradation tests were conducted using filamentous fungi of the genus Aspergillus, Aureobasidium, Paecilomyces, Penicillium, Scopulariopsis and Trichoderma. The ability of filamentous fungi to colonize examined films as well as weight loss of polymers and changes in their texture were determined. Changes in chemical structure of macromolecules as a result of biodegradation were analyzed using infrared spectroscopy. The modification of polyethylene with Bionolle® or starch enabled the intensive colonization of materials. The fungus Penicillium funiculosum turned out to be the most active fungi. It caused 29% weight loss of film modified with starch and 100% weight loss of polyethylene film containing Bionolle®. The scanning electron microscopy revealed significant changes in the texture of all films after biodegradation where holes of various shapes and depth and stratification were observed. FTIR spectroscopy demonstrated that modification of polyethylene with Bionolle® accelerated its biodegradation, however, filling with starch, although enabled decomposition of film, did not result in changes in the structure of polyethylene alone. Quite different results were obtained for PET modified with Bionolle® as compared to the unmodified film, because despite the presence of readily biodegradable Bionolle® there was no observed increase in the extent of degradation of film.