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Abiotic and biotic degradations of a LDPE blend in soil of South Brazil landfill

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Abstract

Polyethylene degrades slowly when discarded in the environment and exposed to natural weathering. A solution to this problem is the incorporation of additives to accelerate its biodegradation. In the present study, a biodegradable low-density polyethylene (LDPE) blend was obtained by the mixture of LDPE with a biodegrading additive (8% w/w) and the effect of accelerated weathering on biodegradation process was assessed. Chemical, mechanical, thermal, and morphological properties of non-aged and aged samples were studied. Results showed that aging process caused changes  on structural characteristics (insertion of functional groups), morphological (appearance of micro-cracks and increased roughness), mechanical (greater stiffness and loss of plasticity) and thermal (lower degree of crystallinity and thermal stability) properties. The presence of biodegrading additive contributed to aging process, since polar functional groups were inserted into additive exposed to soil underwent greater degradation than their non-aged counterparts. CO2 production of aged LDPE blend demonstrated that accelerated weathering influences biodegradation process. In this work, due to availability of O2 gas, aerobic microorganisms can be the main responsible by the material deterioration, leading to production of microbial biomass, CO2 and H2O. Thus, the results of biodegradation (166 days) obtained in this work are promising, once it was reached a natural soil from South Brazil landfill.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank CAPES (Financial Code—001) for scholarships, as well as PUCRS and Brasilata Company for technical and financial support, Laboratório Central de Microscopia e Microanálise (LabCEMM/PUCRS) for morphological analyzes and Laboratory of Dr. Marcelo Villar (PLAPIQUI/CONICET) for the GPC analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Program in Materials Engineering and Technology, School of Technology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Gabriela Miranda, Jéssica Pires, Rogério Lourega, Jeane Lima & Rosane Ligabue

  2. School of Technology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Gabriela Souza, Flávia Fraga, Carla Azevedo, Rogério Lourega, Jeane Lima & Rosane Ligabue

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  1. Gabriela Miranda
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  2. Jéssica Pires
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  3. Gabriela Souza
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  4. Flávia Fraga
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  5. Carla Azevedo
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  6. Rogério Lourega
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  7. Jeane Lima
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  8. Rosane Ligabue
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Correspondence to Jeane Lima.

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Miranda, G., Pires, J., Souza, G. et al. Abiotic and biotic degradations of a LDPE blend in soil of South Brazil landfill. Iran Polym J 29, 1123–1135 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13726-020-00866-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13726-020-00866-w

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