Oxo‐biodegradability of high‐density polyethylene films containing limited amount of isotactic polypropylene |
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| Authors: | Soheyl Khajehpour‐Tadavani Gholam‐Reza Nejabat Seyed Mohammad Mahdi Mortazavi |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Polymer Engineering, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, P.O. Box 71993‐3, Shiraz, Iran;2. Faculty of Engineering, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute, P.O. Box 14975‐112, Tehran, Iran |
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| Abstract: | Limited amount of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) is added to high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) containing 1% w/w an oxo‐biodegradable additive and extruded and converted to films. The films are put under UV irradiation for different periods of time. Irradiation of the films for 6 weeks imposes remarkable effects on viscosity average molecular weight (Mv) and carbonyl index (CI) of them. Mv decreases from 3.4 × 105 to 4.7 × 104 g mol?1 for neat HDPE films; from 3.1 × 105 to 3.3 × 104 g mol?1 for the films containing oxo compound, and from 1.5 × 105 to 2.6 × 104 g mol?1 for the films containing oxo compound and 1% w/w iPP. Carbonyl index of the neat HDPE films increases from 4 to 8.7 while for the sample containing only the oxo compound it increases from 4.5 to 7.3 and for the sample containing both oxo compound and iPP it decreases from 12.0 to 8.8. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) indicate more cracks and uniform degradation in the samples containing iPP and oxo compound. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA/DTG) of the samples shows that the samples containing iPP and oxo compound have lower decomposition temperature after UV irradiation. Finally, it can be said that the presence of iPP in HDPE matrix containing oxo compound can improve HDPE oxo‐biodegradablity. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45843. |
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| Keywords: | functionalization of polymers oxo‐biodegradable polyolefins UV degradation |
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