Abstract
Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is a major cause of persistent and long-term environmental pollution. In this paper, two bacterial isolates Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BSM-1) and Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BSM-2) were isolated from municipal solid soil and used for polymer degradation studies. The microbial degradation LDPE was analyzed by dry weight reduction of LDPE film, change in pH of culture media, CO2 estimation, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and fourier transform infrared FTIR spectroscopy of the film surface. SEM analysis revealed that both the strains were exhibiting adherence and growth with LDPE which used as a sole carbon source while FTIR images showed various surface chemical changes after 60 days of incubation. Bacterial isolates showed the depolymerization of biodegraded products in the extracellular media indicating the biodegradation process. BSM-2 exhibited better degradation than BSM-1 which proves the potentiality of these strains to degrade LDPE films in a short span of time.
Highlights
Plastic is a man-made hazardous long-chain synthetic polymer
The microbial degradation Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was analyzed by dry weight reduction of LDPE film, change in pH of culture media, CO2 estimation, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and fourier transform infrared FTIR spectroscopy of the film surface
SEM analysis revealed that both the strains were exhibiting adherence and growth with LDPE which used as a sole carbon source while FTIR images showed various surface chemical changes after 60 days of incubation
Summary
Plastic is a man-made hazardous long-chain synthetic polymer. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is a widely used nonbiodegradable thermoplastic. To deal with this environmental problem related to non-biodegradable thermoplastics, research to modify non-biodegradable thermoplastics to biodegradable materials is of great interest (Zheng et al 2005). These synthetic polymers are normally not biodegradable until they are degraded into low molecular mass fragments that can be assimilated by microorganisms (Francis et al 2010). Biodegradable plastics offer a lot of advantages such as increased soil fertility, low
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