Recipientes de acetato de celulose comercial aplicados na produção de mudas vegetais: estudo de preparação e caracterização.

Abstract

The cellulose acetate (CA) is the most important commercial cellulose ester, being widely used as films, fibers and plastics, besides having numerous scientific works that approach from its synthesis and characterization to the most diverse applications, as the proposal of handling and application of this material in composites. In this work, the commercial cellulose diacetate (CDA) was used to produce biodegradable containers for the cultivation of vegetable seedlings, using glycerol (15% w/w in relation to CDA) as plasticizer and H3PO4 as biodegradation additive at concentrations of 0.5 and 1.0% w/w. The final product was submitted characterization tests which indicated that the presence of the plasticizer as well as the additive decreased the thermal stability of the material compared to the pure sample, however, it improved the mechanical properties of the films making them more flexible (greater deformation). In the biodegradability test, the containers were used in the planting of sugarcane being unearthed and monitored each month in relation to the loss of mass as a function of time and its morphology. The results obtained proved the efficiency of the phosphoric acid as a facilitator of the biodegradation processo of the CDA, causing the material to present a great loss of mass, and in some cases, until total degradation in soil, in only 2 months of the test. Although other studies are needed to testify the results of this work, such as amount of microorganisms present, soil properties, water and temperature conditions, the presence of the acid, in fact, increased the rate of biodegration of the CDA, indicating that in the right proportion it can significantly accelerate the degradation of this material in the soil, making its use promising as an additive in this type of polymer matrix.