Degradable Plastic Composite
Film—A Comparison Between
Photocatalytic and Biodegradation
Parbatee Nag, Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay, Amrita Debnath, Anirban Roy,
and Sampa Chakrabarti
Abstract Due to the non-biodegradable and impervious nature, accumulation of
plastic wastes in the environment poses an ecological threat. Plastics are generally
littered into soil and water bodies. Microorganisms play a crucial role in biodegradation of plastics. They sometimes utilize these plastics as the substrate. It is also
known that sunlight degrades plastic to some extent and the degradation is enhanced
by adding semiconductors in the polymer matrix to promote solar photocatalysis. In
this work, composite film comprising of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polycaprolactone
(PCL, for facilitating biodegradation), and Zinc Oxide (ZnO, a semiconductor photocatalyst active under sunlight) was subjected to photocatalytic and bio-degradation
separately. The microbial strain capable of degrading PVC was isolated from soil
and was identified as Bacillus altitudinis. Degradation in both cases was monitored
by weight loss. Maximum degradation obtained by photodegradation was 17.8%
whereas maximum biodegradation was about 10%. Photodegradation was a fast
process (2 h) whereas biodegradation was a complex and slow process (25 days).
The degradation by photocatalytic process followed pseudo first-order kinetics.
P. Nag · A. Mukhopadhyay
Department of Environmental Science, University of Calcutta, 35, Ballygunge Circular Road,
Kolkata 700019, India
A. Debnath · S. Chakrabarti (B)
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Calcutta, 92, A. P. C. Road, Kolkata 700009,
India
e-mail: sampac.2008@gmail.com
A. Roy
Department of Material Science and Technology, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
University of Technology, Kolkata, West Bengal 741249, India
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
D. Ramkrishna et al. (eds.), Advances in Bioprocess Engineering and Technology,
Lecture Notes in Bioengineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7409-2_25
249
Film—A Comparison Between
Photocatalytic and Biodegradation
Parbatee Nag, Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay, Amrita Debnath, Anirban Roy,
and Sampa Chakrabarti
Abstract Due to the non-biodegradable and impervious nature, accumulation of
plastic wastes in the environment poses an ecological threat. Plastics are generally
littered into soil and water bodies. Microorganisms play a crucial role in biodegradation of plastics. They sometimes utilize these plastics as the substrate. It is also
known that sunlight degrades plastic to some extent and the degradation is enhanced
by adding semiconductors in the polymer matrix to promote solar photocatalysis. In
this work, composite film comprising of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polycaprolactone
(PCL, for facilitating biodegradation), and Zinc Oxide (ZnO, a semiconductor photocatalyst active under sunlight) was subjected to photocatalytic and bio-degradation
separately. The microbial strain capable of degrading PVC was isolated from soil
and was identified as Bacillus altitudinis. Degradation in both cases was monitored
by weight loss. Maximum degradation obtained by photodegradation was 17.8%
whereas maximum biodegradation was about 10%. Photodegradation was a fast
process (2 h) whereas biodegradation was a complex and slow process (25 days).
The degradation by photocatalytic process followed pseudo first-order kinetics.
P. Nag · A. Mukhopadhyay
Department of Environmental Science, University of Calcutta, 35, Ballygunge Circular Road,
Kolkata 700019, India
A. Debnath · S. Chakrabarti (B)
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Calcutta, 92, A. P. C. Road, Kolkata 700009,
India
e-mail: sampac.2008@gmail.com
A. Roy
Department of Material Science and Technology, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
University of Technology, Kolkata, West Bengal 741249, India
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
D. Ramkrishna et al. (eds.), Advances in Bioprocess Engineering and Technology,
Lecture Notes in Bioengineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7409-2_25
249