Rheological Behaviour, Mechanical Properties and Processability of Biodegradable Polymer Systems for Film Blowing

Films for agricultural or packaging applications are typically made of low density polyethylene (LDPE). They are produced through the film blowing process, which requires the use of polymers with suitable rheological properties. Furthermore, the short shelf-life which is often related to many packed...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of polymers and the environment 2018-02, Vol.26 (2), p.749-755
Main Authors: La Mantia, F. P., Ceraulo, M., Mistretta, M. C., Morreale, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biodegradability
Biodegradable materials
BIODEGRADATION
Blowing
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
DENSITY
Draw ratio
Elongation
Environmental Chemistry
Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology
IMPACT TESTS
Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering
Low density polyethylenes
MATERIALS SCIENCE
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
Original Paper
PLASTICS
Polyethylene
POLYETHYLENES
Polymer films
Polymer Sciences
Polymers
Rheological properties
Rheology
SHEAR
Shelf life
STORAGE LIFE
WASTE PROCESSING
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Summary:Films for agricultural or packaging applications are typically made of low density polyethylene (LDPE). They are produced through the film blowing process, which requires the use of polymers with suitable rheological properties. Furthermore, the short shelf-life which is often related to many packed products leads to huge amounts of plastic-based wastes. This suggests the use of biodegradable and/or compostable polymers in replacement for traditional ones. To this regard, only few data exist on the rheological properties of biodegradable polymers undergoing film blowing processing. In this work, a detailed investigation on the rheological, mechanical and processability behaviour of some biodegradable polymers (originating from MaterBi ® and Bioflex ® commercial groups) was carried out, in order to assess their suitability to industrial-scale film blowing by direct comparison with a traditional non-biodegradable polymer (LDPE). Rheological tests under shear and non-isothermal elongational flow allowed to find out the two most suitable polymer grades. The film blowing production operations at different draw and blow-up ratios (from 2.5 to 3.5) showed that the two samples are suitable for industrial scale operations. Results from tensile and impact tests indicated that the two selected polymers exhibit significantly different mechanical properties (up to 10–15%).
ISSN:1566-2543
1572-8919
1572-8900
DOI:10.1007/s10924-017-0995-4