Biodegradation behavior of acid‐containing cellulose acetate film in soil

Abstract

Abstract The biodegradation behavior of various cellulose acetate (CA; degree of substitution = 2.5) films that contain acids was examined by a laboratory soil burial test to clarify the effects of additives on the biodegradability of CA. The biodegradation rate of the CA films containing polyphosphoric acid, phosphoric acid, and p ‐toluenesulfonic acid increased compared to that of the nonadditive CA film. CA films containing mandelic acid and maleic acid showed a small tendency to increase. Conversely, CA films containing adipic acid did not affect the biodegradability of CA. A similar experiment was carried out with a sterilization system. The acid‐containing CA film, which showed an accelerated biodegradation rate, was chemically deacetylated by contact with water in the environment and was consequently converted to a lower degree of acetyl group substitution matter that had higher biodegradability. An IR analysis suggested that this deacetylating ability of acids is correlated with the intensity of their interaction with the acetyl group of CA. In the biodegradation process, the contact efficiency of acids to CA was considerably lowered by the elution of internal acids with time. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 466–473, 2005