November 1, 2021 Journal article Open Access

Pablo Ferrero; Olivia A. Attallah; Miguel Ángel Valera; Ivana Aleksic; Muhammad Azeem; Jasmina Nikodinovic-Runic; Margaret Brennan Fournet

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{
  "DOI": "10.21203/rs.3.rs-1016043/v1", 
  "author": [
    {
      "family": "Pablo Ferrero"
    }, 
    {
      "family": "Olivia A. Attallah"
    }, 
    {
      "family": "Miguel \u00c1ngel Valera"
    }, 
    {
      "family": "Ivana Aleksic"
    }, 
    {
      "family": "Muhammad Azeem"
    }, 
    {
      "family": "Jasmina Nikodinovic-Runic"
    }, 
    {
      "family": "Margaret Brennan Fournet"
    }
  ], 
  "issued": {
    "date-parts": [
      [
        2021, 
        11, 
        1
      ]
    ]
  }, 
  "abstract": "<p>An energy efficient high throughput pre-treatment of low density polyethylene (LDPE) using a fast reactive extrusion (REX) assisted oxidation technique followed by bacterial attachment as an indicator for bio-amenability was studied. Silicon dioxide (SiO<sub>2</sub>) was selected as a model oxidizing and catalytic reagent with the REX process demonstrated to be effective both in the presence and absence of the catalyst. Optimized 5-minute duration pretreatment conditions were determined using Box-Behnken design (BBD) with respect to screws speed, operating temperature, and concentration of SiO<sub>2</sub>. The crystallinity index, carbonyl index and weight loss (%) of LDPE were used as the studied responses for BDD. FTIR and DSC spectra of the residual LDPE obtained after pretreatment with the REX assisted oxidation technique showed a significant increase in residual LDPE carbonyl index from 0 to 1.04 and a decrease of LDPE crystallinity index from 29% to 18%. Up to 5-fold molecular weight reductions were also demonstrated using GPC. Optimum LDPE pretreatment with a duration of 5 minutes was obtained at low screw speed (50 rpm), operating temperature of 380-390\u2070C and variable concentration of SiO<sub>2</sub>&nbsp;(0 and 2% (w/w)) indicating that effective pretreatment can occur under noncatalytic and catalysed conditions. Biofilms were successfully formed on pretreated LDPE samples after 14 days of incubation.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, the technique proposed in this study is expected to provide a high throughput approach for pretreatment of pervasive recalcitrant PE based plastics to reduce their bio inertness.</p>", 
  "title": "Rendering bio-inert low-density polyethylene amenable for biodegradation via fast high throughput reactive extrusion assisted oxidation", 
  "type": "article-journal", 
  "id": "6259017"
}