Samaneh Rajabi - Department of Chemical and polymer Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran
Mitra Tavakoli Ardakani - Department of Chemical and polymer Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Conventional polymeric materials accumulate in the environment due to their low degradability. The effectof organoclay (OC) on the abiotic degradation of low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA)containing calcium stearate (LDPE/EVA/oxo) film has been studied. The films were subjected under ambient conditions,ultraviolet light irradiation and air-oven aging tests (at 70°C) for extended time periods. The progress of degradation wasfollowed by monitoring the chemical changes of the samples using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) andcalculating carbonyl index. FTIR and carbonyl index results have shown that the presence of clay which is used toenhance mechanical, thermal and barrier properties of LDPE/EVA/oxo film does not influence the abiotic oxidationmechanism, significantly.

Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) ; Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) ; Pro-oxidant ; Abioticoxidation ; Organoclay