1. Degradation of Structurally Modified Polylactide under the Controlled Composting of Food Waste
- Author
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Elena Trofimchuk, Valeria Ostrikova, Olga Ivanova, Marina Moskvina, Anna Plutalova, Tatyana Grokhovskaya, Anna Shchelushkina, Alexander Efimov, Elena Chernikova, Shenghua Zhang, and Vladimir Mironov
- Subjects
polylactide ,composting ,hydrolytic degradation ,biodegradation ,structure ,gel permeation chromatography ,Organic chemistry ,QD241-441 - Abstract
The degradation of polylactide (PLA) films of different structures under conditions of controlled composting has been studied. We have demonstrated that PLA underwent degradation within one month in a substrate that simulated standard industrial composting. Regardless of the initial structure of the samples, the number-average molecular weight (Mn) decreased to 4 kDa while the degree of crystallinity increased to about 70% after 21 days of composting. Addition of an inoculant to the standard substrate resulted in the accelerated degradation of the PLA samples for one week due to an abiotic hydrolysis. These findings have confirmed that industrial composting could solve the problem of plastic disposal at least for PLA.
- Published
- 2023
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