Biodegradation in soil environment of PCL/starch blends

ALVAREZ, VERA ALEJANDRA; GUARÁS, MARÍA PAULA; LUDUEÑA, LEANDRO NICOLÁS

Mar del Plata

Simposio; SLAP2018 XVI Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros, XIV Congreso Iberoamericano de Polímeros; 2018

INTEMA

Bio-based polymers have attracted increasing attention. Biodegradation can be explained as a chemical process involving conversion of materials into natural substances such as carbon oxide, water and compost present in the environment.1.Polycaprolactone (PCL) is synthetic aliphatic polyester that can be completely biodegraded by enzymatic activity. Its main advantages are its good processability and high elongation at break, but it has low rigidity and its cost is too high to be used for packaging applications. A possible solution is to blend PCL with less-expensive biodegradable polymers such as starch.Among natural and biodegradable polymers, thermoplastic starch has been considered as one of the most promising candidates because of an attractive combination of availability, price, processability and performance. The structure of native starch must be modified, since its thermal degradation starts at a temperature below than its melting process. This modification is performed by the breakdown of the starch granule when it is processed in the presence of a specific amount of plasticizer, at a given processing conditions. The obtained product is known as thermoplastic starch (TPS). TPS has been blended with PCL without much success because of poor interfacial compatibility. However, the addition of a compatibilizer, like maleic anhydride-grafted-polycaprolactone (PCL-gMA), enhances the compatibility, increasing mechanical properties and lowering the water permeability of the blends.The aim of this work is to study the degradation in soil environment of PCL/starch blends.