Polymer, Plastics and
Rubber Techonologies -
Environmentally Degradable Polymers
Introduction
Polyethylene (PE) is used as commodity plastics in diverse
applications such as packaging, personal hygiene products,
construction, clothing, chemical plants, cables etc
High volume usage of PE has resulted in concerns in
plastic waste management. The problem is so immense
that there is continuing research to develop a special
grade of polyethylene which will be tailored to retain
the service characteristics during its usage but will
disintegrate into safer components on disposal. Addition
of biodegradable and/or photo degradation promoting
additive in PE are one of the few techniques used to
design such products. However high cost along with low
compatibility with PE has restricted the use of commercially
available biodegradable polymers for wide spread application.
The present work is an effort to develop cheap film
formable polymeric component, which will disintegrate
from PE matrix on disposal and thereby cause no littering
of PE wastes and also to develop photo initiator to
promote photo degradation of PE.
The process involves post reactor
modification of polyethylene by incorporating biosoluble
polymer or a photo degradation-promoting additive into
the PE matrix. The project involves development of bio
and photo-master-batch based on styrene maleic anhydride
copolymer (SMA) and blending these components in PE
at different proportion. The blended product is made
into film by extrusion film blowing process, for the
production of packaging material as well as carrybags.
Testing and evaluation of the film is done by standard
testing procedures.
Special Features:
Biomasterbatch : (a) Can be made easily by cheap raw
materials; (b) Easy to synthesize; (c) Hydrophilic in
nature and hence expected to be biosoluble; (d) Film
forming polymer; (e) Nontoxic in nature; (f) Cheaper
than commercially available biodegradable polymers such
as aliphatic polyesters. Photomasterbatch : (a) Easy
to prepare; (b) Polymeric in nature so no problem of
leaching out on processing.
Status of Development:
The development has been carried out with the production
of 250 grms. per batch of environmentally degradable
product. Batch time is approximately 5 hours.
Major Equipment
& Facilities required:
Jacketed reactor with heating arrangement, condenser
and stirrer; Extrusion/Compounding machine for making
granules; Film blowing machine
Developed by :
Prof. K A Ghosh Department: Center
for Polymer Science and Engineering
Contact:
Managing Director
Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT)
Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016, INDIA
Tel : 91-011-26597167, 26857762, 26581013, 26597153
Fax : 91-011-26851169
E-mail : drkdpn@gmail.com
