TY - JOUR
T1 - AcceleratedDegradation of Poly(lactide acid)/Poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PLA/PHB) Yarns/Fabrics by UV and O2 Exposure in South China Seawater
AU - Bao, Qi
AU - Wong, Wingho
AU - Liu, Shirui
AU - Tao, Xiaoming
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel Limited, Innovation and Technology Commission and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (grant number ITT/037/18TP) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University Endowed Professorship Fund (grant number 847A).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/3/2
Y1 - 2022/3/2
N2 - Marine plastic pollution is emerging as a potential hazard to global ecosystems and human health. Micro-fibers derived from synthetic textiles contribute a considerable proportion of plastic debris. Bio-polymers/bio-plastics have been proposed for the application of apparel products, yet their degradability, fate, durability and related environmental parameters are still elusive and need further exploration. Herein, we report the degradation behavior of poly(lactide acid)/poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PLA/PHB) fabrics, made from PLA/PHB multi-filament yarns, in subtropics marine seawater. The degradation experiments were performed under various parallel conditions including static seawater, aerobic seawater in dark box, aerobic seawater under sunlight, static seawater under ultra-violet light and aerobic seawater under ultra-violet light. Continuous mass loss of PLA/PHB fabrics as the immersion time in the seawater increased was confirmed. The hydrolysis rate of PLA/PHB fabrics accelerated in the presence of UV light and dissolved oxygen in the seawater. Moreover, the tensile strength of the PLA/PHB yarns dropped rapidly by 38.54–68.70% in spite of the mass loss percentage being from 9.57% to 14.48% after 2 weeks’ immersion. All the PLA/PHB fabrics after two weeks’ immersion exhibited similar ATR-IR spectra. Therefore, the degradability of PLA/PHB fabrics, in the marine surface water under the synergistic destructive effect of seawater, UV and dissolved oxygen, provides a pathway for more sustainable textile fibers and apparel products.
AB - Marine plastic pollution is emerging as a potential hazard to global ecosystems and human health. Micro-fibers derived from synthetic textiles contribute a considerable proportion of plastic debris. Bio-polymers/bio-plastics have been proposed for the application of apparel products, yet their degradability, fate, durability and related environmental parameters are still elusive and need further exploration. Herein, we report the degradation behavior of poly(lactide acid)/poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PLA/PHB) fabrics, made from PLA/PHB multi-filament yarns, in subtropics marine seawater. The degradation experiments were performed under various parallel conditions including static seawater, aerobic seawater in dark box, aerobic seawater under sunlight, static seawater under ultra-violet light and aerobic seawater under ultra-violet light. Continuous mass loss of PLA/PHB fabrics as the immersion time in the seawater increased was confirmed. The hydrolysis rate of PLA/PHB fabrics accelerated in the presence of UV light and dissolved oxygen in the seawater. Moreover, the tensile strength of the PLA/PHB yarns dropped rapidly by 38.54–68.70% in spite of the mass loss percentage being from 9.57% to 14.48% after 2 weeks’ immersion. All the PLA/PHB fabrics after two weeks’ immersion exhibited similar ATR-IR spectra. Therefore, the degradability of PLA/PHB fabrics, in the marine surface water under the synergistic destructive effect of seawater, UV and dissolved oxygen, provides a pathway for more sustainable textile fibers and apparel products.
KW - Hydrolysis
KW - Marine degradation
KW - PLA/PHB
KW - UV photooxidation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129184333&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/polym14061216
DO - 10.3390/polym14061216
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85129184333
SN - 2073-4360
VL - 14
JO - Polymers
JF - Polymers
IS - 6
M1 - 1216
ER -