Soil burial test for poly(ethylene‐co‐vinyl alcohol)‐graft‐polycaprolactone

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The ring-opening polymerization of -caprolactone was carried out with poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) as a macroinitiator to synthesize poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol)-graft-polycaprolactone (EVOH-g-PCL). A simple lowdensity polyethylene (LDPE)/polycaprolactone (PCL) (64/ 36) blend lost 5.3 wt % of its original weight after 90 days of a soil burial test. However, the elongation at break of the LDPE/PCL blend remained almost invariable even after the solid burial test because the tensile properties depended mostly on the LDPE phase on account of the poor interaction between the continuous LDPE matrix and the dispersed PCL phase. For EVOH-g-PCL, the elongation at break decreased drastically as a result of the soil burial test, and the reduction of the elongation at break was more pronounced for EVOHg-PCL with a higher PCL concentration, even though the weight loss of EVOH-g-PCL after the soil burial test was as low as 1.2-1.3% and was nearly independent of the PCL concentration. Few holes were observed in EVOH-g-PCL when the PCL concentration was less than 26 wt % after an accelerated hydrolysis experiment at 60°C for 7 days in a 0.1M KOH solution. In contrast, the hydrolysis formed small holes in EVOH-g-PCL with a PCL concentration of 36 wt %. The LDPE/PCL blend was much better percolated, as a result of the hydrolysis, than EVOH-g-PCL with the same PCL concentration; the soil burial test showed the same results.

Environmental weathering of (linear low‐density polyethylene)/(soya powder) blends compatibilized with polyethylene‐grafted maleic anhydride

“…Invention of biopolymer is one of the important developments in helping to solve the environmental problem. It has been utilized in surgical implants, sutures and controlled‐released drug [1]. However, it is difficult to implement the use of biopolymer in packaging application as the biopolymer is far more expensive compared to conventional petroleum based polymer such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC).…”

Soil burial degradation studies of photo‐crosslinked PCL‐PDMS‐PCL triblock copolymer films

“…The weight loss for pristine PCL is almost 45% in 60 days while there is an increase in the weight loss for composite systems 26 . Park et al reported a sharp decrease in the degradation of poly(ethylene‐co‐vinyl alcohol)‐graft polycaprolactone (EVOH‐g‐PCL) that is almost 1.2% within 75 days whereas 80% for PCL 20 . Luduena et al reported that weight loss percentage of PCL in 6 months is 22.0% and for PCL/cloisite 30B (C30B) composite is 15.3% in soil burial degradation 22 .…”

“…Widening the application of PCL copolymers requires studying their degradation in soil burial. PCL, 18,19 the graft copolymer with poly (ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol), 20 blend with corn starch, 21 and composites with organoclays [22][23][24] were studied for soil burial degradation aspects. PCL-PDMS-PCL triblock copolymer degradation studies are limited to simulated environments as of now.…”

Poly[ethylene‐co‐(vinyl alcohol)]‐graft‐Poly(ε‐caprolactone) by Reactive Extrusion, 2 – Parameter Analysis

“…Only a few studies describing PCL‐containing copolymer synthesis by reactive extrusion have been reported 29–31. Park et al studied the synthesis of poly[ethylene‐ co ‐(vinyl alcohol)]‐ graft ‐PCL (EVOH‐ g ‐PCL) in solution at 130 °C and found that 24–72 h of reaction time were needed to achieve graft copolymer synthesis 32…”