1Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, Bhopal, India
2Rajeev Gandhi Technological University, Bhopal, India
The Ferrocene additive is used as a photodegradable additive, which is commercially available and reported as UV active. Ferrocene additive was melt blended with polypropylene (PP) at 3 different concentrations i.e. 1, 2 & 3 (w/w) % respectively in twin screw extruder. After blending with polypropylene the performance of photo and bio degradation was evaluated. The films were evaluated for their mechanical, thermal, infrared spectroscopic analysis, and morphological characteristics. The results show that ferrocene can be used as an effective photodegradable additive. The photo degradation rate of the additive is very high at high concentration of ferrocene additive and the biodegradation was also proving that some low molecular weight species was formed during photo degradation, which is responsible for the 20% biodegradation after 47 days.
Biodegradation, Ferrocene, Photo degradation, Polypropylene
