Abstract
The biodegradation and disintegration of thermoplastic starch multilayers containing carvacrol(CA)-loaded poly-(ε-caprolactone) electrospun mats were evaluated under thermophilic composting conditions for 45 and 84 days, respectively, and compared with non-loaded carvacrol films and pure starch films. Sample mass loss, thermogravimetric and visual analyses were performed throughout the disintegration test. The disintegration behaviour of all multilayers was similar, reaching values of 75–80% after 84 days. Biodegradation, assessed by carbon dioxide measurements, revealed that all the carvacrol-free films completely biodegraded after 25 composting days. However, the presence of CA notably affected the compost inoculum activity, thus limiting the biodegradability of the CA-loaded multilayers to a maximum value of around 85% after 45 days. Nevertheless, this value was close to that established by the standard ISO method to qualify as biodegradable material.
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