Premium
Oxo‐biodegradability of high‐density polyethylene films containing limited amount of isotactic polypropylene
Author(s) -
KhajehpourTadavani Soheyl,
Nejabat GholamReza,
Mortazavi Seyed Mohammad Mahdi
Publication year - 2018
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.45843
Subject(s) - high density polyethylene , materials science , tacticity , thermogravimetric analysis , polyethylene , scanning electron microscope , polypropylene , polymer chemistry , composite material , chemical engineering , polymer , polymerization , engineering
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 ( M v ) and carbonyl index (CI) of them. M v decreases from 3.4 × 10 5 to 4.7 × 10 4 g mol −1 for neat HDPE films; from 3.1 × 10 5 to 3.3 × 10 4 g mol −1 for the films containing oxo compound, and from 1.5 × 10 5 to 2.6 × 10 4 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.