[01] Adelaja Oluwaseun Adekoya, Chemistry Department, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. [02] Babaniyi Babfemi Raphael, National Biotechnology Development Agency Abuja, Nigeria.

The production and the use of plastics have increased significantly over the last seven decades to meet their ever increasing demand. However, this study examined the mechanical properties of blending polyhdroxybutyrate, PHB and low-density polyethylene LDPE at different proportion with plasticizer. Standard methods were used in the sample preparation and blending procedures. The blends shown a better mechanical properties, elongation at break of the blend were greatly improved, also higher maximum flexural strength of the blends were enhanced. The blends showed higher water uptake than either LDPE or PHB without blending. The composites absorbed water as the days’ progresses, no inhibition zone found in the antimicrobial test. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that there is a high similarity in morphology between the composites with lower PHB concentration and the higher ones. Furthermore, the result of degradation test shown that over a short period, the composite could probably degrade completely. Bacillus substilis isolated for the study revealed great potential of utilizing the composites, the organisms grew significantly on the composites, the total plate count at the initial stage increased rapidly. Composites arising from the blending of LDPE with PHB could exhibit a better performance than LDPE only in food packaging and other biomedical applications.

LDPE, PHB, XRD, Mechanical Properties

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