Study on biodegradation behaviour of starch nanocomposites with chitosan-modified bentonite as fillers

CASALONGUÉ, CLAUDIA A.; ALVAREZ, VERA A.; MERINO, DANILA; MANSILLA, ANDREA Y.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XVI Latin American Symposium on Polymers and XIV Ibero American Congress on Polymers; 2018

INTEMA

The development of biodegradable agricultural mulch films is highly attractive and necessary in order to replace the conventional polyethylene (PE) mulch films. The latter, are degradable in at least 100 years, time that exceeds their life use1. The use of PE mulch films offers several advantages to farmers: they produce an increase in yields and accelerate crop harvesting time by keeping proper soil moisture and raising soil temperature2. However, the main disadvantages of their use are the economic costs that imply their collection after harvesting and the disposal of great amounts of agrochemically-polluted PE3. This way, there is a current need for developing biodegradable mulch films that keep the advantages of those manufactured with polyethylene but offering earlier biodegradation. In this context, new starch-based formulations were proposed and analysed in our previous work4. Current presentation is focused on the study of the process of biodegradation of environmentally friendly nanocomposites based on native and oxidized corn starch and natural and chitosan modified nanoclays buried in soil. The progress in the biodegradation process was followed gravimetrically, measuring the water adsorption and the weight loss as a function of the degradation time. Evolution of chemical composition and microbial attack during the experiment were followed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).