Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5207124 | Polymer Testing | 2011 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
A material was produced by extrusion of corn flour with 8Â wt% glycerol followed by injection-moulding. The corn flour based material biodegradation kinetics were assessed by an anaerobic biodegradation standard test (ISO 14853), an aerobic burial composting test (ISO/DIS 16929) and a test to assess the susceptibility of corn starch to hydrolysis by amylolytic enzymes. Biodegradation and hydrolysis were more rapid for corn flour based material than for native corn flour. This was probably due to corn flour starch amorphisation during thermomechanical processing at the expense of crystalline regions, which are more resistant to hydrolysis by amylolytic enzymes. This was substantiated by observations during burial composting showing that crystalline zones of this material were less degraded. A comparison of the kinetics of starch hydrolysis or biodegradation of corn flour based material samples with specific surface areas ranging from 0.67 to 30Â mmâ1 by amylolytic enzymes or microorganisms under anaerobic conditions in a liquid medium (ISO 14853) or aerobic conditions during burial composting (ISO/DIS 16929) allowed (i) observation that the biodegradation level by the latter method always exceeded 90% before 84 days, thus meeting this biodegradability criterion, and (ii) to propose that the test of hydrolysis by amylolytic enzymes might constitute a faster method for initial assessment of the biodegradability of starch based materials.
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Authors
Fouzia Jbilou, Sophie Galland, Farouk Ayadi, Laurent Belard, Patrice Dole, Valérie Desjardin, Rémy Bayard, Pascal Degraeve,