Thermal and tensile behavior of LLDPE films containing limited amounts of an oxo-biodegradable additive and/or amorphous poly(1-hexene) before and after UV irradiation

Varying amounts of an amorphous poly(1-hexene) (PH, Mv 1.7×106 Da) were added to an LLDPE matrix containing 3% w/w Addiflex oxo-biodegradable additive (HES-W) and extruded and converted into films. Then the effect of presence of PH was investigated on microstructure, thermal and tensile behavior of polymer films before and after 6 weeks of ultra violet irradiation (UVR). Due to UVR, viscosity average molecular weight (Mv) of the sample without PH decreased from 9.6×104 to 4.6×103 Da and for the sample containing 3% w/w PH from 11.3×104 to 3.0×104 Da, also carbonyl index (CI) of the sample without PH increased from 0 to 28.7 while for the sample containing 3% w/w PH increased from 1.8 to 30.4. Moreover, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that crystallinity of the sample without PH increased from 34.4% to 36.9% and from 28.7% to 32.1% for the sample containing 3% w/w PH. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) showed lower decomposition temperature for the samples containing PH. The elongation-at-break decreased from 723.0% to 88% for the sample without PH and from 410% to 10% for the sample containing PH. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) indicated smoother surfaces for samples containing 3% w/w PH before and after UVR. Although, the aforementioned results showed that the presence of limited amounts of PH in the LLDPE matrix deteriorated thermal and mechanical properties of the matrix, it hindered the oxo-biodegradablity of the matrix by opposing assimilation process perhaps due to high Mv and/or gelation.