Enhancing environmmental biodegradation of polyesters

The accumulation of plastic material and its fragmentation to microplastic due to the mistreatment of plastic waste is a growing challenge, and new material solutions must be pursued. For applications of polymers in specific fields like food packaging, the use of biodegradable polymers, generally polyesters, is highly logical. However, their slow degradation under environmental conditions poses a hurdle to their practical utility. How can the degradation of polyesters be enhanced during the end-of-life phase? In this work, we present two pathways. On the one hand, we propose a smart concept of changing the properties of polymers in the disposal environment to those that support biodegradation, such as enhanced hydrophilicity. On the other hand, we carried out structural variations to prepare polyesters with a balance of hydrophilicity and crystallinity that generally supports faster biodegradation. The polymers prepared using both approaches were well characterized for structure, thermal properties, hydrophilicity, and crystallinity. Detailed degradation studies were conducted in compost, wastewater, and using enzymes. With our work, we aim to present new strategies for packaging materials that do not increase microplastic pollution. Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/558835/document