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Title of the project

TEXTILES AND COMPOSITE MATERIALS with controlled lifecycle

based on novel eco-stabilizers

Envisaged Program for funding / other sources for funding

CORNET programme;

dual coopreation

Domain of interest

Abstract

(up to 500 words)

Tons of non-biodegradable products are produced every day all over the world to fulfill daily requirements of people. Most synthetic polymers, which are not biodegradable, bring the problem with waste that must be disposed of in land or be burnt. Both methods can cause a release of harmful toxic pollutants. That´s why biodegradable products, which replace these non-ecofriendly materials, are very desirable.

Humic acids, the major extractable component of soil humic matter, are extraordinary substances, which could have flexible influence on the polymer material’s stability. The reason lays in the unique complex composition of humic acids, consisting of polyphenols, lipids and other sequences. In specific form they increase the material stability, while in the form of salt they tend to destabilize it. Thanks to this, they could be used as a destabilizer for polymers, which means they could be used as a starting point of degradation process at the end of polymers lifetime. Polymers can then be decomposed easier by microorganisms (bacteria, fungi), algae or worms. Organisms and their enzymes could do their work more effectively when the polymer is partly degraded because of better access of organisms to the polymer. This corresponds to bigger surface of polymers that has been already damaged. All these facts bring us the possibility to control the lifetime cycle and eco-destruction of these materials. In addition, the application of humic acids should have many advantages – e.g. materials are nature compatible, have a great efficiency towards soil fertility, they are not toxic to human and are very cheap so they pose a great potential in this field. There is a great potential for application in automotive industry, health service, plastics, rubbers and concrete mixtures.

Selection of suitable humic acids for various polymers and methods how to prepare final polymers treated this way will be the scope of this project. The mechanism of influence and effect of various microorganisms and higher organisms on the process of degradation will be studied and described. Output of this project should be innovative polymers using incorporated humic acids for their controlled lifetime.

Keywords (up to 5)

Polymers, degradability, humic acids, microorganisms

Envisaged partners sought

University, research institute, SME

Contact data

(Name/Surname, Organization, email)

Textile Testing Institute, Brno, Czech republic

Hana Polášková, polaskova@tzu.cz