Latos-Brozio Malgorzata, Masek Anna
Institute of Polymer and Dye Technology, Lodz University of Technology, ul. Stefanowskiego 12/16, 90-924 Lodz, Poland.
Polymers (Basel). 2020 Aug 19;12(9):1856. doi: 10.3390/polym12091856.
Compounds of plant origin are used with polymers as functional additives. However, these substances often have biological (antimicrobial) activity. The bactericidal and fungicidal properties of natural additives can affect the composting process of biodegradable polymers. The scientific novelty of the manuscript is the investigation of the effect of the addition of herbal antimicrobial functional substances on the composting process of green polymers. The aim of the study is to analyze composting processes of biodegradable polymers polylactide (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) containing β-carotene, juglone, morin, and curcumin. As part of the research, six-month composting of materials was performed. At time intervals of one month, the weight loss of samples, surface energy, colour change, mechanical properties, and carbonyl indices (based on FTIR spectroscopy) of composted materials were examined. The research results showed that the addition of selected plant substances slightly slowed down the process of polymer composting. Slower degradation of samples with plant additives was confirmed by the results of mechanical strength tests and the analysis of changes in carbonyl index (CI). The CI analysis showed that PLA and PHA containing a natural additive degrade a month later than reference samples. However, PLA and PHA polyesters with β-carotene, juglone, morin, and curcumin were still very biodegradable.
源自植物的化合物与聚合物一起用作功能添加剂。然而，这些物质往往具有生物（抗菌）活性。天然添加剂的杀菌和杀真菌特性会影响可生物降解聚合物的堆肥过程。该手稿的科学新颖之处在于研究添加草药抗菌功能物质对绿色聚合物堆肥过程的影响。该研究的目的是分析含有β-胡萝卜素、胡桃醌、桑色素和姜黄素的可生物降解聚合物聚乳酸（PLA）和聚羟基脂肪酸酯（PHA）的堆肥过程。作为研究的一部分，对材料进行了为期六个月的堆肥。每隔一个月，检测堆肥材料的样品失重、表面能、颜色变化、机械性能和羰基指数（基于傅里叶变换红外光谱）。研究结果表明，添加选定的植物物质会略微减缓聚合物堆肥过程。机械强度测试结果和羰基指数（CI）变化分析证实了含有植物添加剂的样品降解较慢。CI分析表明，含有天然添加剂的PLA和PHA比参考样品晚一个月降解。然而，含有β-胡萝卜素、胡桃醌、桑色素和姜黄素的PLA和PHA聚酯仍然具有很高的生物降解性。
