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Nanosilicates in Compatibilized Mixed Recycled Polyolefins: Rheological Behavior and Film Production in a Circular Approach

Currently, plastic packaging represents a global challenge and has become a key point of attention for governments, media and consumers due to the visibility of the waste it generates. Despite their high resource efficiency, the perceived non-recyclability of polymeric films risks precluding them fr...

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Autores principales: Garofalo, Emilia, Di Maio, Luciano, Scarfato, Paola, Apicella, Annalisa, Protopapa, Antonio, Incarnato, Loredana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8401472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34443957
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11082128
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author Garofalo, Emilia
Di Maio, Luciano
Scarfato, Paola
Apicella, Annalisa
Protopapa, Antonio
Incarnato, Loredana
author_facet Garofalo, Emilia
Di Maio, Luciano
Scarfato, Paola
Apicella, Annalisa
Protopapa, Antonio
Incarnato, Loredana
author_sort Garofalo, Emilia
collection PubMed
description Currently, plastic packaging represents a global challenge and has become a key point of attention for governments, media and consumers due to the visibility of the waste it generates. Despite their high resource efficiency, the perceived non-recyclability of polymeric films risks precluding them from being a relevant packaging solution in a circular economy approach. In this regard, the aim of this study was to implement a strategy to try closing the loop, via the mechanical recycling of post-consumer flexible packaging of small size (denoted as Fil-s) to obtain new films. In particular, two lots of Fil-s were used, which are PE/PP blends differing for the PP content and the presence of polar contaminants. The suitability for film blowing extrusion of these recycled materials, as such and after the addition of a compatibilizer and/or a lamellar nanosilicate, was evaluated. It was first evidenced that the difficulty of producing blown films with the pristine recycled materials, due to the frequent bubble breakages, occurring even at low draw ratios. Moreover, the shear and extensional rheological behavior of all Fil-s based systems was usefully correlated with their processability features, evidencing the key roles of the nanofiller to stabilize the bubble and of the compatibilizer to ensure a uniform film deformation, avoiding its premature breakage. Even if the adopted upgrading strategies allowed the production of blown films with both types of Fil-s, the different components of the recycled matrices were proven to significantly affect their processability and final film performances.
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spelling pubmed-84014722021-08-29 Nanosilicates in Compatibilized Mixed Recycled Polyolefins: Rheological Behavior and Film Production in a Circular Approach Garofalo, Emilia Di Maio, Luciano Scarfato, Paola Apicella, Annalisa Protopapa, Antonio Incarnato, Loredana Nanomaterials (Basel) Article Currently, plastic packaging represents a global challenge and has become a key point of attention for governments, media and consumers due to the visibility of the waste it generates. Despite their high resource efficiency, the perceived non-recyclability of polymeric films risks precluding them from being a relevant packaging solution in a circular economy approach. In this regard, the aim of this study was to implement a strategy to try closing the loop, via the mechanical recycling of post-consumer flexible packaging of small size (denoted as Fil-s) to obtain new films. In particular, two lots of Fil-s were used, which are PE/PP blends differing for the PP content and the presence of polar contaminants. The suitability for film blowing extrusion of these recycled materials, as such and after the addition of a compatibilizer and/or a lamellar nanosilicate, was evaluated. It was first evidenced that the difficulty of producing blown films with the pristine recycled materials, due to the frequent bubble breakages, occurring even at low draw ratios. Moreover, the shear and extensional rheological behavior of all Fil-s based systems was usefully correlated with their processability features, evidencing the key roles of the nanofiller to stabilize the bubble and of the compatibilizer to ensure a uniform film deformation, avoiding its premature breakage. Even if the adopted upgrading strategies allowed the production of blown films with both types of Fil-s, the different components of the recycled matrices were proven to significantly affect their processability and final film performances. MDPI 2021-08-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8401472/ /pubmed/34443957 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11082128 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Garofalo, Emilia
Di Maio, Luciano
Scarfato, Paola
Apicella, Annalisa
Protopapa, Antonio
Incarnato, Loredana
Nanosilicates in Compatibilized Mixed Recycled Polyolefins: Rheological Behavior and Film Production in a Circular Approach
title Nanosilicates in Compatibilized Mixed Recycled Polyolefins: Rheological Behavior and Film Production in a Circular Approach
title_full Nanosilicates in Compatibilized Mixed Recycled Polyolefins: Rheological Behavior and Film Production in a Circular Approach
title_fullStr Nanosilicates in Compatibilized Mixed Recycled Polyolefins: Rheological Behavior and Film Production in a Circular Approach
title_full_unstemmed Nanosilicates in Compatibilized Mixed Recycled Polyolefins: Rheological Behavior and Film Production in a Circular Approach
title_short Nanosilicates in Compatibilized Mixed Recycled Polyolefins: Rheological Behavior and Film Production in a Circular Approach
title_sort nanosilicates in compatibilized mixed recycled polyolefins: rheological behavior and film production in a circular approach
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8401472/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34443957
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11082128
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