Attached
Polymers; plastics and rubber, have become indispensable to mankind because
o f their extraordinary properties and low cost. Polymeric waste causes serious
environmental problems because of their lack of degradability, and as a result
they tend to accumulate in the environment. Our attem pt here, is to report the
developm ent of an environmentally degradable novel polymer film having
antibacterial activity. This study was focused on the preparation of a
photodegradable copolymer, polystyrene-co-cinnamaldehyde, where
cinnamaldehyde acts as a photosensitizer. Commercially available cinnamon oil
was used as the source o f cinnamaldehyde. The oil was characterized by FT-IR
and GC-MS analysis. Commercially available cinnamon oil 75% (w/w)
incorporated styrene-co-cinnamaldehyde copolymer was synthesized by free
radical polymerization and was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy and DSC
analysis.Both outdoor weathering and accelerated tests were performed to
evaluate the extent of photo degradation of synthesized copolymers and those
w ere assessed by FTIR spectroscopy, percentage weight loss and morphological
changes. FTIR analysis showed the appearance of new peaks of carbonyl and
hydroxyl groups with increasing radiation exposure time. Results confirm the
photodegradable mechanism of copolymer film as Norrish I, Norrish II and
photo-oxidation. Extreme weight loss was observed at outdoor weathering with
33.9% weight loss for 75% (w /w ) cinnamon oil incorporated copolymer with
respect to 2.2% weight loss for the reference polystyrene homopolymer.
Em brittlem ent and color variations of 75% (w /w ) cinnamon oil incorporated
copolymer were higher than that of polystyrene homopolymer with radiation
exposure tim e. Surface cracks were clearly observed in SEM micrographs of
75% (w /w ) cinnamon oil incorporated copolymer after exposing for 2 months in
outdoor weathering which confirm the photodegradable nature of the novel
copolymer film. Furthermore, it was discovered that thesynthesized copolymer
has antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus
following overlay diffusion test by observing inhibition zones for 75% cinnamon
oil incorporated copolymer. According to all the results, it is confirmed that
synthesized copolymer films are photodegradable and also possess
antibacterial activity. The developed copolymer could have potential
