Latos-Brozio Malgorzata, Bocianowski Michał, Efenberger-Szmechtyk Magdalena, Piotrowska Małgorzata, Masek Anna
Institute of Polymer and Dye Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, Lodz University of Technology, Stefanowskiego 16, 90-537 Lodz, Poland.
Institute of Fermentation Technology and Microbiology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences, Lodz University of Technology, Wólczańska 71/173, 90-537 Lodz, Poland.
Polymers (Basel). 2025 May 27;17(11):1483. doi: 10.3390/polym17111483.
The objective of the present study was to investigate the potential effects of biofillers derived from fruit waste, a byproduct of the food-processing industry, on the degradation of ethylene-norbornene (EN) copolymers under the controlled conditions of laboratory composting. This manuscript provides a comprehensive analysis of the influence of waste biofillers on the biological degradation of EN-based materials, thereby filling a gap in the existing literature on the subject. The concept of this work encompasses the enhancement of the degradability of synthetic EN through the incorporation of bioadditives. Waste apple and chokeberry pomace were added to EN as biofillers in amounts of 5, 10, and 15 phr (parts per hundred rubber). The polymeric materials were composted for 3 and 6 months under laboratory conditions. We assessed the susceptibility of the samples to the growth of microorganisms, as well as the mass loss of the polymeric materials after composting. The findings indicated that the bioadditives increased the compostability of the materials, as evidenced by the elevated carbonyl indices observed for the samples containing biofillers. Furthermore, the elevated polar component of the surface energy exhibited by the samples containing biofillers suggested a heightened susceptibility to composting processes, attributable to their augmented hydrophilicity, in comparison to the reference EN. Fruit pomace is a promising additive for increasing the compostability of synthetic polymeric materials.
本研究的目的是在实验室堆肥的可控条件下，研究食品加工业副产品水果废料衍生的生物填料对乙烯-降冰片烯（EN）共聚物降解的潜在影响。本手稿全面分析了废弃生物填料对基于EN的材料生物降解的影响，从而填补了该主题现有文献的空白。这项工作的概念包括通过加入生物添加剂来提高合成EN的可降解性。将废弃苹果渣和黑刺李果渣作为生物填料以5、10和15 phr（每百份橡胶中的份数）的量添加到EN中。在实验室条件下，将聚合物材料堆肥3个月和6个月。我们评估了样品对微生物生长的敏感性，以及堆肥后聚合物材料的质量损失。研究结果表明，生物添加剂提高了材料的可堆肥性，含生物填料样品的羰基指数升高证明了这一点。此外，含生物填料样品表面能的极性成分升高，表明与参考EN相比，由于其亲水性增强，它们对堆肥过程的敏感性更高。果渣是提高合成聚合物材料可堆肥性的一种有前途的添加剂。
