Biodegradability, thermal, chemical, mechanical and morphological behavior of LDPE/pectin and LDPE/modified pectin blend

摘要

Pectin has now become cynosure among all the others because of an unusual combination of biological activities, mechanical and physical properties. The present work comprises the chemical modification of pectin by grafting of vinyl monomers, i.e., tert-butyl acrylate and methacrylamide in a homogeneous aqueous phase using ceric ammonium nitrate as the initiator. All these three variants of pectin and modified pectin (10-30%) were blended with low-density polyethylene in various compositions using twin-screw extruder machine. Low-density polyethylene was grafted with maleic anhydride and subsequently used as a compatibilizer (5 and 10%) to promote the interfacial interaction between the ingredients. The characterization of the grafted products was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and percentage grafting G (%), percentage efficiency E (%) and yield of graft copolymerization Y (%) were determined. The sample blends were prepared by automatic injection molding machine, and blends were subjected to mechanical properties, scanning electron microscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis and biodegradation study.