6th Annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship
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Poster #68 Laboratory Experiment Development: The Degradation Extent Measurement of Biodegradable Plastics Jixiao Li Faculty Mentor: Jeanne Franz As biodegradable polymers and their packaging applications are widely used, there is a need to help student address their environmental performance in the laboratory. In particular, it is necessary to understand the time and condition required for their complete disintegration, before these materials are widely deployed in commercial composting processes. Standards developed by ASTM and ISO evaluate the biodegradation of biodegradable plastic materials in simulated controlled composting conditions. However, a more detailed understanding of the biodegradation for experiment is needed in order to have a successful composting operation in the laboratory. This research investigates the biodegradation performance of polylactide (PLA) films under simulated composting conditions according to ASTM and ISO standards. Four simulated composting method were used in this study to access biodegradability of PLA films: (a) a cumulative measurement respirometric (CMR) system, (b) a gas evolution tests (GET) system, (c) a gravimetric measurement respirometric (GMR) system, and (d) IR signal changes over time. All four systems showed similar trends of biodegradation for PLA films and at the end of the 67th day the mass loss was 22.37±1.9% averagely, the concentration of CO2 in sealed chamber is significantly increase, the IR signal of hydroxyl bond is generally decline. The biodegradation observed for PLA bottles in both conditions explored in this study matches well with theoretical degradation and biodegradation and biodegradation mechanisms; however, applying this study to a short-term laboratory experiment is still in process. |
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