Thin plastic (LDPE) bags floating all over the place is an ugly spectacle to behold and also harms the environment. The challenge has been to use the bags and yet not harm the environment.
IIT Kharagpur has a solution. With the technology developed by it you can bio-degrade the LDPE films, using microbes.
This is how the institute describes the technology:
First, surface modification by plasma treatment that increases surface energy as well as wettability. This treatment accelerates the biodegradation by microorganisms and was analyzed with the help of ATR-IR spectroscopy and contact angle measurements. Second, surface modified LDPE films were further chemically modified and analyzed by ATR-IR spectroscopy. Lastly, microbial degradation was studied in culture medium using the hydrocarbon degrading microbes at two different temperatures (22.3)°C and 37°C and analyzed by contact angle measurements, and tensile testing. It has been found that chemically modified LDPE degrades much faster as compared to only corona treated and untreated LDPE films. The chemically modified film showed around (7%) degradation at 37°C in 90 days.
The advantages are as follows:
- Plasma treatment followed by microbila degradation indicates faster degradation of polyethylene films.
- Needs further work for complete microbial degradation.
- Using eco-friendly microbes
- No any hazardous materials after PE degradation.
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