Mechanical Properties and Degradability of Modified Starch and Polyethylene Blends

변성전분과 폴리에틸렌 혼합물의 물성 및 분해성 평가

Starch was modified with epichlorohydrin(ECH) to improve the miscibility with LDPE and LLDPE. Native starch or epichlorohydrin treated starch was mixed with grycerol and LDPE/LLDPE resin using a kneader and extruded using a single screw extruder to make pallets. The pallets were compression-molded at 145 into composite boards to evaluate their color, oxygen permeation, mechanical and thermal properties, and degradability under UV irradiation. Sheets with epichlorohydrin treated starch generally showed higher L-value than that of native starch blend sheets. The hunter b-values in both native starch blends and epichlorohydrin treated starch blends increased with Increasing starch contents. Tensile strength and percent elongation of sheets decreased with increasing starch contents. Tensile strength and percent elongation of sheets decreased with increasing starch contents. The degradability of blends under UV radiation increased with increasing starch contents in both blend types. The results represents that crosslinking of starch with epichlorohydrin may be a good method to improve miscibility of starch with petroleum-based materials.