Effects of biodegradable (PBAT/PLA) and conventional (LDPE) mulch film residues on bacterial communities and metabolic functions in different agricultural soils

Highly Enhanced Mechanical Strength and Toughness of Biodegradable PBAT Plastics through a Biobased Multiple Hydrogen Bonding Strategy

“…Poly(butylene adipate- co -terephthalate) (PBAT) is one typical fully biodegradable aliphatic-aromatic copolyester made of terephthalic acid (TPA), 1,4-butanediol, and adipic acid. , Compared to other biodegradable polyesters such as polylactic acid (PLA) , and polybutylene succinate (PBS), PBAT exhibits notable advantages including excellent flexibility with an elongation at break high up to 700% and complete biodegradability under mild climatic conditions. , PBAT with the trademark of Ecoflex provided by BASF designed for film extrusion and extrusion coating can be completely degraded within 5 months under landfilling and has large importance in the market of biodegradable single-use packaging plastics and agricultural mulch films similar to LDPE. , Nevertheless, the relatively weak mechanical strength (<24 MPa) of PBAT restricts its applications. To enhance the mechanical strength, many efforts have been conducted on blending PBAT with strong and brittle biodegradable polymers or biopolymers and nanoparticles such as polylactic acid (PLA), − poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC), , poly(ethylene 2,5-furanoate) (PEF), starch, , cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), and organoclay. , However, the high melting viscosity of PBAT and the high immiscibility between PBAT and these additives have been the major limitations in the purpose of simultaneously improving the mechanical strength and toughness with the feasible processing ability.…”