Open Access

ARTICLE

Plasticized Polyethylene/Chitosan Blend Films and Study of the Effect of Plasticizers on their various Properties and Biodegradabilty

HULYA SEMA KOKER¹, HÜLYA YAVUZ ERSAN¹, AYSE AYTAC^2,3,*

1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Hacettepe University, Engineering Faculty, Beytepe - Ankara/Turkey
2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Kocaeli University, Engineering Faculty, 41380, Kocaeli/Turkey
3 Polymer Science and Technology Programme, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey

* Corresponding Author: e-mail:

Journal of Polymer Materials 2020, 37(3-4), 165-177. https://doi.org/10.32381/JPM.2020.37.3-4.4

Abstract

Chitosan (CH) and low-density polyethylene (PE) blend films were produced by a twin-screw extruder and heat press with different plasticizers glycerol (GLY), sorbitol (SOR) and polyethylene glycol (PEG). The tensile strength decreased and elongation at break increased with the incorporation of plasticizer for blends with 10 wt% of CH. The thermal stability of the films was slightly higher for films containing GLY and PEG as compared to SOR. Contact angles reduced from CH-PE film to the films containing PEG, SOR and GLY in decreasing order, respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed no interactions between CH and PE in CH-PE film but, the addition of each plasticizer caused an interaction between CH and the plasticizer. CH-PE film containing PEG showed the smallest water vapor permeability. The heterogeneous structure of CH-PE film was improved with the addition of each plasticizer.CH-PE film containing SOR underwent biodegradation rate at a faster compared to the films containing GLY and PEG in soil burial end of 120 days.The lowest biodegradation rate was obtained in CH-PE film containing PEG, among the plasticized-films.

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