New materials for comprehensive technology update of biodegradable plastics and packaging materials

Shen Gezhi, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, believes that in terms of practicality, expanding the width of the film is of great importance for mechanical distribution; in terms of the performance of the polylactic acid, it has obvious characteristics as a cling film and speeds up the preservation of the modified polylactic acid film. Research has a clear market application prospect for the huge fresh-keeping materials market.
The project leader Cheng Shujun introduced that the significant progress of ultra-thin polylactic acid films will accelerate the acceptance of degradable materials in the market. Judging from the development of foreign technologies, polylactic acid has advantages in replacing PET and PP packaging fields such as candy, tobacco, and tea in addition to agricultural plastic film and cling film, which will enable China's anti-white pollution capability to be greatly improved and form an industrial chain. This will lead to comprehensive technical updates for agriculture, biodegradable plastics and packaging materials.

The chief inventor of the patent, Dr. Li Yongfeng, said that the material can be completely degraded or swallowed by earthworms after being piled up. Completely non-petroleum-based, excellent light transmission, tensile strength, thermal conductivity, water permeability, UV damping, and non-dripping properties make it extremely promising for applications.
Chen Changjie, former secretary-general of the Shanghai Packaging Association, said that the birth of ultra-thin films will enable fully degradable materials to enter into a stage affordable for the common people and open up a new era in the development of agriculture and packaging materials. Accelerating technological development and obtaining material application characteristics will be the key to the society's approval of such films.
Professor Cai Dianxiong of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences said that among the 12 key tasks during the 11th Five-Year Plan proposed by the National Agricultural Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-2020), water-saving agriculture and fertility training, scientific fertilization, and scientific drug use, Three items of biomass resources conversion are related to materials; they are fully degradable materials with superior cost performance, and have laid a foundation for the development of new environmentally-friendly water-saving agent preparation materials, development of new types of fertilizers such as slow-release (control) release fertilizers, and biodegradable plastic film. Good foundation.

In the country's enactment of the "plastic ban" and the soaring price of oil today, the "corn plastic" that can be completely degraded and derived from non-petroleum-based materials is synonymous with polylactic acid, which has already been known. In order to avoid the consumption of food, today the raw material for the production of polylactic acid has evolved from edible corn to transgenic maize, corn cob, corn stalk, and fiber. However, due to brittleness and price issues, there is still a long way to go in this corn plastic product and people's lives.
According to the requirements of the country for the development of environmental materials, Xu Yun, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Economic and Information Commission, who was originally a professor of materials science, proposed the use of polylactic acid to develop high-strength characteristics in fully degradable plastics, to develop thin types, and to reduce resource consumption. , pay attention to environmental protection, and develop a strategic plan for completely degradable products.
With the Chinese Academy of Sciences academician Hu Ying as the chief advisor and the Institute of Materials Science and Technology Director of East China University of Science and Technology, led by Cheng Shujun, the scientific and technological research team has, through painstaking efforts, adopted molecular design, and adopted a low-permeability, non-petroleum-based, self-property-owned property. Degradation modifiers modify the brittle polylactic acid, making it possible to significantly improve the processability while increasing the flexibility of the material. A unique patented technology is used to realize the stable production of the film, and a thickness of ≤ 4 μm is obtained. Fully degraded ultra-thin film, the unit area price of the film is expected to be similar to the PE film prescribed by the current national standard; at the same time, the film has good strength.