Polypropylene Film Rapid Degradation through Prodegradantlncorporation

Disposing plastic articles ·is becoming a major problem in municipal waste
management as its degradation process takes quite a long time and contributes to
mounting landfill and clogging of the drain. Therefore, this study is conducted on the
usage of prodegradant in enhancing the degradation process. The study also
determined the optimum level of prodegradant in a polypropylene film.
Polypropylene film is widely used in agricultural, medical and household
applications. The investigation focused on thermal degradation where the plastic is
exposed to heat for a certain period of time. The changes in mechanical and physical
properties due to the exposure are monitored. Oxygen-Induction-Time (OIT) test was
performed using the Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) to observe the effects
on thermal properties. It is concluded that prodegradant incorporation in PP film
significantly accelerates PP film thermal degradation. A prodegradant of 0.1 wt% is
adjudged as the optimum level.