The material has been developed by EcoCortec, a company from Croatia, according to EE News Europe. The material is called the Eco-Corr Film ESD film, and it is described as a biodegradable, compostable static dissipative film and bags. The company claim that this is the first electrostatic film to be fully biodegradable in the world.
Static dissipative films are products designed to control static electricity. They are fashioned from high tensile, high tear strength materials, surfaced with a static dissipative surfacing. These types of films are used in the electronics, telecommunications, packaging, and electric car industries.
By being dissipative, these materials allow the charges to flow to ground more slowly in a more controlled manner than with conductive materials.
The film has been developed in light of impending European Union rules relating to the sale of non-recyclable plastic packaging materials. This means the need to phase out standard polyethylene electrostatic dissipating films, as well as a variety of other industrial applications reliant upon plastic products.
The new film is a fashioned using vapour phase corrosion inhibitors. This creates a film with a molecular corrosion inhibiting layer positioned onto metal substrates. In tests the new form of coating has been shown not to interfere with the physical or chemical properties of material function.
While fully biodegradable, the compositing time required for the material to fully breakdown is dependent upon the quality of the composting site, in terms of the temperature, soil type, and the required types and numbers of microbes. The typical time to breakdown is around six-months. Initially the composted packaging material will be used as soil improver at EcoCortec’s logistics car manufacturing park in Prune, India.
