Agricultural Mulch Film Compound (UV Stabilised)

About This Product

The compound is a UV-stabilised film-grade pellet blend of polylactic acid and polybutylene adipate terephthalate for blown mulch film that is tilled into the soil at the end of the season. Conventional mulch film has to be recovered from the field, and the fragments left behind accumulate in the soil year on year. The design problem is a controlled service life. Sunlight drives photo-oxidation of the polyester: UV generates radicals, the radicals cleave chains, molecular weight falls and the film loses the entanglement that gives it strength, at which point it embrittles and fragments. A UV stabilisation package delays that by screening the damaging wavelengths and intercepting the radicals that form anyway, so the package rather than the polymer alone governs how long the film holds together under sunlight before it begins to break down. Once molecular weight has fallen far enough the ester linkages in the backbone are hydrolysable and the fragments are assimilated in the soil, which removes both the recovery operation and the residue. That service life is matched to the crop cycle, because a film that degrades early exposes the crop and one that degrades late defeats the purpose. It is used in agricultural mulch film, horticulture, field crop production and protected cropping. Bio Green Chem supplies the agricultural mulch film compound to specification on PLA/PBAT ratio, film gauge, width and the service life required for the crop cycle, as a raw material for processing on the buyer's own line; we do not produce finished articles.