An automated test for measuring polymer biodegradation

The biodegradability of polymer materials as evaluated by the modified Sturm test is labor-intensive, cumbersome and costly and also tends to cumulate errors. An automated system for the measurement of carbon dioxide would overcome many of these disadvantages. We describe here a method in which CO2 was determined by IR spectroscopy. We compared the results with those from trapping CO2 in a solution of barium hydroxide (Ba(OH)2) followed by manual titration. The automated system was more reproducible, less costly and more compact. The automated system could also be employed to measure the biodegradability of other substances such as oils and detergents.