New blends of ethylene-butyl acrylate copolymers with thermoplastic starch. Characterization and bacterial biodegradation

Published Date
20 September 2016, Vol.149:68–76, doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2016.04.075

Title 
New blends of ethylene-butyl acrylate copolymers with thermoplastic starch. Characterization and bacterial biodegradation

• Author 

• A. Morro ^b
• F. Catalina ^a,,
• T. Corrales ^a
• J.L. Pablos ^a
• I. Marin ^b
• C. Abrusci ^b,,

• aDepartment of Applied Macromolecular Chemistry, Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Polímeros, C.S.I.C. Juan de la Cierva 3, 28006 Madrid, Spain
• bDepartamento de Biología Molecular, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid-UAM, Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain

Received 15 January 2016. Revised 13 April 2016. Accepted 16 April 2016. Available online 19 April 2016.

Highlights

• •
  Blend Films of TPS and EBA copolymer were characterized by different techniques.
• •
  The bacterial biodegradation of EBA/TPS blend films is investigated.
• •
  TPS provided a cheap way to produce partially biodegradable EBA materials.

Abstract

Ethylene-butyl acrylate copolymer (EBA) with 13% of butyl acrylate content was used to produce blends with 10, 30 and 60% of thermoplastic starch (TPS) plasticized with glycerol. Ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer (EAA) was used as compatibilizer at 20% content with respect to EBA. The blends were characterized by X-ray diffraction, ATR-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), water-Contact Angle measurements (CA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Stress–strain mechanical tests. Initiated autoxidation of the polymer blends was studied by chemiluminescence (CL) confirming that the presence of the polyolefin-TPS interphase did not substantially affect the oxidative thermostability of the materials. Three bacterial species have been isolated from the blend films buried in soil and identified as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus borstelensis and Bacilluslicheniformis. Biodegradation of the blends (28 days at 45 °C) was evaluated by carbon dioxide measurement using the indirect impedance technique.

Keywords

• Thermoplastic starch
• Ethylene-butyl acrylate copolymer
• Starch blend chemiluminescence
• Bacterial biodegradation

---

 Table 1

Table 1.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

 Table 2

Table 2.

• ⁎ 
  Corresponding authors.

For further details log on website :

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014486171630443X