Tensile Properties, Barrier Properties and Biodegradation in Soil of Compression- Molded Gelatin-Dialdehyde

J. F. MARTUCCI; R.A. RUSECKAITE

JOURNAL OF APPLIED POLYMER SCIENCE

WILEY

Año: 2008

0021-8995

Glycerol (Gly) - plasticized gelatin (Ge) films crosslinked with dialdehyde starch (DAS) as environmentally friendly crosslinking agent were successfully produced by compression molding, demonstrating the capacity of gelatin of being transformed into films by using thermoplastic processes. The effect of DAS content on the color, light transmission, total soluble matter (TSM), water uptake (WU), water vapour permeability (WVP), oxygen permeability (OP) as well as biodegradability during soil burial was investigated. The addition of up to 10wt.%DAS (Ge-10DAS) generated transparent films, with reduced TMS, WU, WVP and OP values but higher extensivity than the uncrosslinked counterpart. Further incorporating DAS into plasticized – gelatin matrix conducted to phase separation with detrimental effect of transparency and tensile properties. DAS-containing films degraded at slow rate than the uncrosslinked counterpart, suggesting that biotic attack during soil burial is restricted by covalent crosslinking points induced by DAS. Ge-10DAS films lost about 28% of their initial mass within the first eight days of exposure to degrading medium; therefore the material can be classified as rapidly degradable.