Characterization of degradation on gamma-irradiated recycled polyethylene blends by scanning electron microscopy

Effect of the radiolitic sterilization in polyethylene/starch blends

“…The results of this work agree to the joined ones for Suarez and Mano, 9 therefore the LDPE/modified starch blends after exposure to gamma radiation at a dose of 25 kGy, shows a brittle tensile behavior, characterized by elongation at break significantly lower than that of non-irradiated material. 9 …”

“…The effects of the gamma radiation in the properties of low density polyethylene have been investigated and undesirable alterations, mainly in the thermal and mechanical properties, were observed by the modification in the structure of the polymer for the scission and/or crosslink of the chain. 8,9 This paper presents the results of studies into the effect of ionizing radiation in LDPE/modified starch blends (80/20 m/m) through a variety of techniques used to identify and quantify the behavior of blends, being mechanical properties; scanning electron microscopy (SEM); Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction.…”

Thermal, mechanical and permeation properties of gamma-irradiated multilayer food packaging films containing a buried layer of recycled low-density polyethylene

“…In general, melt processing, usually employed as a step of plastics recycling process, may introduce oxidative as well as thermomechanical degradation of (Incarnato et al, 1998;Tzankova Dintcheva et al, 1997). The result of this is a significant modification in the molecular structure of the polymer and a subsequent deterioration of mechanical, thermal and optical properties, gas transmission rates as well as increase in migration values of the polymer (Devlieghere et al, 1998;Tzankova Dintcheva et al, 1997;Incarnato et al, 1998;Pospisil et al, 1995;Suarez and Mano, 2001). By introducing additives such as antioxidants, stabilizers and impact modifiers the properties of recycled polymers can be improved (Tzankova Dintcheva et al, 1997).…”

“…Considerable work has been published in the literature on the effect of ionizing radiation on (a) thermal, mechanical and gas permeation properties and (b) structural changes of polymers as a result of ionizing radiation treatment (Zenkiewicz, 2004;Fengmei et al, 2000;Woo and Sandford, 2002;Yagoubi et al, 1999;Buchalla et al, 1993;Klemchuk, 1993;Goulas et al, 2002Goulas et al, , 2003Goulas et al, , 2004 as well as on the above reported properties of non-irradiated recycled polymers (Devlieghere et al, 1998;Incarnato et al, 1998;Tzankova Dintcheva et al, 1997) and irradiated recycled polymers (Burillo et al, 2002a, b;Suarez and Mano, 2001) There are, however, no data on the effect of ionizing radiation on the above reported properties of multilayer packaging structures containing a middle buried layer of recycled polymer.…”

Recycling Polymer Blends

“…It was found that increasing the irradiation dose causes a net increase of impact strength, Fig. 20.3, which levels off beyond 1,000 kGy, a moderate increase of the ultimate stress, and a decrease of the elongation at break (Suarez and Mano 2001;Patel and Keller 1975;Aslaniam et al 1987;Moad and Windzor 1998;Suarez et al 1999;Suarez and Mano 2000;Suarez et al 2000a, b). An increment of the mechanical properties was observed in postirradiated GTR/LDPE blends, especially when EVA is added to the system (Mészáros et al 2012).…”