Green Production of Biodegradable Mulch Films for Effective Weed Control

Abstract

Biodegradable mulch films are supposed to be a prospective substitute for poly(ethylene)-based mulch films in the field of sustainable agriculture. Among them, weeding mulch films play significant roles. However, the large-scale production of weeding mulch films through the traditional high-temperature film blowing process would often cause serious pollution due to the diffusion of herbicides in the surroundings. Herein, a green and facile coating approach is developed to produce biodegradable weeding mulch films. In our strategy, a herbicide was added into a poly(vinyl alcohol) aqueous solution with dopamine in it. After the subsequent low-temperature coating procedure on a biodegradable poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/poly(lactic acid) film, effective weeding mulch films were obtained. The morphology, structure, and mechanical property test results revealed the robustness and stability of the coating, and the pot experiments clearly demonstrated the effective weed suppression ability of the obtained weeding films. Evidently, this strategy to produce biodegradable weeding mulch films is green and facile, exhibiting great prospects in the large-scale production of weeding mulch films and other functional biodegradable mulch films.