Premium
Influence of cleaning conditions on the degradation of recycled HDPE
Author(s) -
Santana R. M. C.,
Gondim G.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.29479
Subject(s) - high density polyethylene , thermogravimetric analysis , materials science , degradation (telecommunications) , polyethylene , differential scanning calorimetry , rheometry , melt flow index , composite material , chemical engineering , polymer , telecommunications , physics , computer science , engineering , copolymer , thermodynamics
One of the materials most commonly found in municipal plastic waste (MPW) is High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), which is used particularly for food packaging and cleaning product containers. Postconsumer HDPE is generally contaminated with other impurities and, therefore, a cleaning process is necessary before it can be reprocessed. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the cleaning conditions on the oxidative degradation of postconsumer HDPE. These plastic materials were washed in NaOH solution, liquid detergent (D), and a mixture of NaOH/D (1 : 1). Results for the melt flow rate (MFR) and capillary rheometry showed that NaOH has a great influence on the oxidative degradation of HDPE. The HDPE treated with NaOH solution had a lower decomposition temperature, observed through Thermal Gravimetric (TG) analysis, and a lower the Oxidative Induction Time (OIT), obtained via Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). Finally, the oxidative degradation of HDPE was verified through a higher carbonyl index. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009