Development and characterization of polyvinyl chloride/poly lactic acid blend based biodegradable polymeric films

The present work aimed to decrease the environmental contamination, which is caused by solid non-degradable plastics waste. To overcome this serious global concern, the development, and characterization of a bio-degradable film by blending different proportions of the natural polymers poly lactic acid (PLA) to the conventional petroleum polymer has been done. In this process, PLA was synthesized in the lab by condensation method and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)/PLA blends film was developed by solution casting method with and without adding compatibilizer as poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA). The large domain size and two separate glass transition temperatures in the results indicated an immiscible blend form without a compatibilizer. The film developed with 30% PLA blended with PVC showed the highest biodegradability and it was observed that approximately 50% of the film was degraded in 8 months. The shelf lives of tomatoes stored under PVC-PLA blended film were found to be 21 days at ambient temperature (25 °C) with preserved quality attributes.