Аннотация:Biodegradation is an important environmental factor controlling the effectiveness of polymer composite materials for soil conditioning. The study quantifies this process using laboratory BOD analysis of gel-forming composite superabsorbents with an acrylic polymer matrix, amphiphilic agents (humates, peat) and silver ions as an inhibitor of biological activity. A simple kinetic model of BOD is proposed for standardization the analysis and calculation of polymers half-life after their incubation. The half-life of hydrogels swollen in distilled water (1:100) at a temperature of 30 °C varied from 0.80.2 to 2.41.6 years. The addition of water extract from compost sharply enhances the biodegradation, lowering the half-life up to 40–60 days. Filling the polymer matrix with amphiphilic agents and silver biocide increases the resistance of composite hydrogels to biodegradation. Doses of 0.1–1% silver in a polymer matrix or 10–100 ppm in swollen hydrogels increase their half-life by 5–20 times. The new methodological approach makes it possible to fully automatically evaluate the biodegradation of gel-forming polymers in laboratory conditions, however, for stable materials with a half-life of more than 2.5–3 years, the accuracy of BOD analyzers is insufficient for a statistically reliable assessment of the of the biodegradation kinetics even in long-term (120 days) incubation experiments.
