Disintegration under composting conditions of PLA/PHB/TB films

M. IGLESIAS MONTES; F. LUZI; D. PUGLIA; L.B.MANFREDI; V P CYRAS

Buenos Aires

Simposio; XIII Simposio Argentino de Polímeros. SAP 2019,; 2019

During the last two decades, the industry of biodegradable polymers has had an exponential growth as a consequence of the increasing ecological concern towards a reduction in the environmental impact produced by plastics. Food packaging and its indiscriminate use is one of the main causes of environmental impact. Scientists have especially focused their efforts on the development of new biodegradable materials derived from biomass as an alternative to replace and reduce the use of petroleum-based plastics. In this sense, bio-polyesters such as poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and poly (3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), both biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastics produced from renewable resources, are becoming more and more popular as biopolymers useful for the production of ecofriendly food packaging. However, each of these has some shortcomings, which restrict its applications. Blending techniques are an extremely promising and industrially appealing approach, which can improve the original, not optimal properties of the starting polymers (Sedničková et al., 2018). In our previous study (Iglesias Montes et al., 2019), different PLA/PHB blend compositions were processed by using a natural hydrophobic plasticizer, tributyrin (TB). TB is a triglyceride present in fats and oils and has been considered a good natural-based plasticizer for biopolymer film. Physical, thermal and mechanical analyses were carried out. The study showed that PLA/PHB (70/30) and (60/40) blends, plasticized with a 15 wt% of TB, presented an optimal combination of properties suitable for the intended use as film food packaging, showing toughness and ductility, good water barrier properties and transparency with slightly amber color. In the present work, disintegration under composting conditions of plasticized and non-plasticized PLA, PHB and PLA/PHB (60/40) blends have been tested, in order to evaluate the post-use behavior of these potential food packaging systems. With this purpose, visual observation and morphological and thermal analysis were performed for each sample at different times of incubation