Green Plasticizers for Biodegradable Mulch Films

可持续性目前渗透到许多行业的各个方面，也是最古老和最容易体现的行业之一。 可持续性原则是农业。工业合作伙伴FilmOrganic生产100%有机产品 可堆肥地膜与用于床的传统聚烯烃膜相比， 聚（乙烯）（PE）具有几个优点。与PE相比，农民不需要提起薄膜，移除， 相反，在季节结束时，薄膜会被耕作到土壤中，在那里它会在 酶促作用除了这一关键优势，地膜还可以防止杂草生长，保持土壤 湿度，增加土壤温度，减少对肥料和杀虫剂的需求。然而，最近， 自2001年1月1日起，美国对有机食品用地膜的使用越来越严格。 2015年，薄膜不仅必须是可生物降解的和非石油衍生的，而且还必须是衍生的。 非转基因来源（GMO）。这一限制预计将扩大到加拿大， FilmOrganic正在考虑聚羟基链烷酸酯（PHA），这是由细菌发酵合成的。 最常见的PHA是聚（3-羟基丁酸酯）（PHB），其适于挤出、模塑等，但 是高度结晶的，因此相当脆，并且在通常的加工温度下可热降解。 因此，与其他可生物降解的聚合物如聚（丙交酯）（PLA）一样，该材料通常需要与聚（丙交酯）共混。 其它聚合物或增塑剂或共聚（3-羟基丁酸酯与3-羟基戊酸酯的共聚物 (HV)已被使用）以提供所需的机械性能。我们麦吉尔大学的研究小组 合作，跨学科的项目，以开发一种绿色增塑剂，不仅表现出优异的 生物降解性，但可加工，并表现出与现有技术一样好或更好的机械性能。 邻苯二甲酸酯基增塑剂，如邻苯二甲酸二-2-乙基己酯（DEHP）。本项目的目标是应用 我们开发的绿色增塑剂系列可用于消除PHA，目标是100%可堆肥 非转基因电影

Sustainability currently pervades aspects of many industries and one of the oldest and easiest to embody sustainability principles is agriculture. The industrial partner, FilmOrganic, produces 100% organic compostable mulch film. Applying such a film compared to traditional polyolefin films for beds such as poly(ethylene) (PE) has several advantages. In contrast to PE, farmers do not need to lift the film, remove and then dispose it. Instead, the film gets tilled into the soil at the end of the season, where it decomposes under enzymatic action. Besides this key advantage, the mulch film still prevents weed growth, maintains soil humidity, increases soil temperature and reduces the need for fertilizer and pesticides. Recently, however, the use of mulch films for organic food products has become increasingly more regulated in the USA as of Jan. 2015, where the film must be not only biodegradable and be non-petroleum derived, but also must be derived from non-genetically modified sources (GMO). This restriction is expected to expand to Canada and thus FilmOrganic is considering poly(hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA), which is synthesized by bacterial fermentation. Most common PHAs are poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), which are amenable to extrusion, molding etc. but are highly crystalline and therefore quite brittle and thermally degradable at common processing temperatures. Thus, like other biodegradable polymers such as poly(lactide) (PLA), the material often requires blending with other polymers or plasticizers or copolymerization (a copolymer of 3-hydroxybutyrate with 3-hydroxyvalerate (HV) has been used) to provide the mechanical properties needed. Our group at McGill has been involved in collaborative, inter-disciplinary projects to develop a green plasticizer that not only exhibits excellent biodegradability, but is processable and exhibits mechanical properties as good or better than existing phthalate-based plasticizers such as di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP). This project's goal is to apply the families of green plasticizers we have developed to plasticize PHA with the goal of making 100% compostable non-GMO films.