Effect of a Small Amount of Thermoplastic Starch Blend on the Mechanical Recycling of Conventional Plastics

• The usage of bioplastics could increase in the future which may cause contamination of the waste streams of conventional plastics. The objective of this study was to investigate if a small amount of biopolymer contaminating conventional polymers would significantly affect mechanical and thermal properties. A starch-based plastic was first compounded by blending plasticised starch with PLA (polylactic acid). This polymer blend was subsequently compounded with HDPE (high density polyethylene), PP (polypropylene) or PET (polyethylene terephthalate) at 0%, 1% and 5% of the biopolymer. The compounds were characterised by tensile tests, Charpy impact tests, DSC (differential scanning calorimetry) and FESEM (field emission scanning electron microscopy). Tests showed that PE and PP were not significantly affected in terms of tensile strength and modulus but the elongation at break showed a strong reduction. PET was, on the other hand, incompatible with the starch-based plastic. Already at 1% contamination, PET had lost most of its impact strength. © 2020, The Author(s).

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Kemiteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Chemical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Bioplastics

Contamination

Mechanical recycling

Aliphatic compounds

Biomolecules

Biopolymers

Blending

Charpy impact testing

Compounding (chemical)

Differential scanning calorimetry

Elastomers

Field emission microscopes

High density polyethylenes

Impact strength

Plastic bottles

Plastic recycling

Polymer blends

Polypropylenes

Reinforced plastics

Scanning electron microscopy

Starch

Tensile strength

Tensile testing

Conventional polymers

Dsc(differential scanning calorimetry)

Elongation at break

Field emission scanning electron microscopy

Mechanical and thermal properties

Plasticised starch

Thermoplastic starch

Polyethylene terephthalates

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