Comparative assessment of marine weathering of ROP-derived biopolymers against conventional plastics

MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN

卷:167

Article

Rodgers, Karen¹  Mayes, William M.²  Santoro, Orlando³  Redshaw, Carl³  Mccumskay, Rick¹  Parsons, Daniel R.¹ 

[1] Univ Hull, Energy & Environm Inst, Plast Collaboratory, Cottingham Rd, Kingston Upon Hull HU6 7RX, N Humberside, England

[2] Univ Hull, Dept Geog, Cottingham Rd, Kingston Upon Hull HU6 7RX, N Humberside, England

[3] Univ Hull, Dept Chem, Plast Collaboratory, Cottingham Rd, Kingston Upon Hull HU6 7RX, N Humberside, England

关键词: Plastic;    Bio-based;    Bioplastic;    Weathering;    Leaching;    Seawater;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112272

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Bio-based plastics were designed to replace single-use plastics and to cause less post-consumer environmental damage. This paper assesses the weathering of four bio-based polymers created by ring opening polymerization (ROP) promoted by a previously reported Ti-based catalyst, to detect any problems before production was scaled up. Samples were aged in seawater to identify degradation products and monitor structural changes. Surfaces evidenced degradation and a range of leaching products was observed. Aside from compounds used in the preparation of the plastics (i.e. residual monomers and benzyl alcohol), the degradation products included carboxylic acids (often found in plastic leachate), oxacyclohexadecan-2-one (potentially toxic to aquatic life) and triphenylmethane (potential carcinogen). Overall, there were fewer structural changes in the fossil fuel based polymer (PS) and in the commercially available bio-based plastic studied for comparison purposes than the lab based bio-based polymers.

【 授权许可】

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