A biodegradable water-triggered chitosan/hydroxypropyl methylcellulose pesticide mulch film for sustained control of Phytophthora sojae in soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.)

Field performance on lettuce crops of poly(butylene adipate‐co‐terephthalate)/polylactic acid as alternative biodegradable composites mulching films

“…The mechanical tests were conducted to evaluate developed films functional properties considering the final application; mulching films require several mechanical stressing in the application and during the use, such as resistance to the stress applied when spreading, unrolling, and edge anchoring. 2 Table 2 shows the developed films mechanical results, and Figure 1 (Supplementary material) shows the characteristic mechanical curves of all the samples. Besides, Table 1 (Supplementary material) presents the ANOVA statistical analysis obtained for the samples to identify similarities and differences between the samples.…”

“…The fillers' combination decreased the composite's stiffness, probably because the polymers and fillers are not compatible. 2 Also, the stiffness decrease can be attributed to defects or agglomerations, inducing voids formation. 29 However, the tensile strength showed excellent values due to the new interface that leads to better adhesion and properties.…”

“…Mulch films generally have good moisture retention ability. 2 Contact angle measurements assessed this property of PBAT-PLA films. PBAT/PLA blend showed a contact angle of 72.2 (Figure 6(b)), similar to those reported in the literature.…”

“…PBAT/PLA blend showed a contact angle of 72.2 (Figure 6(b)), similar to those reported in the literature. 2,59 Therefore, the addition of fillers significantly increased the contact angle (up to 82 ), that is, hydrophobicity. 60 As discussed before, this might be due to the formation of hydrogen bonding between hydroxyl groups of the fillers and of the PLA, or carboxyl groups of PBAT, thereby resulted in the reduction of hydrophilicity of the films.…”

“…This type of films can improve the planting quality. 2 The mulching plastic films global use was 7.4 million tons in 2019, 3 being the polyethylene (PE), the most common commodity polymer used. However, PE is not biodegradable.…”