An Analytical Workflow to Quantify Biodegradable Polyesters in Soils and Its Application to Incubation Experiments

Soil biodegradable polyesters are designed to undergo to microbial utilization in aerobic soils, forming carbon dioxide and microbial biomass. These polyesters are thus viable substitutes for conventional, persistent polymers (e.g., polyethylene) in specific applications for which the transfer of some of the polymers into the soil is inevitable. While polymer biodegradability is often assessed in laboratory incubations using respirometric analysis of formed CO₂, approaches to accurately quantify biodegradable polyesters in soils and to track their mass loss in field incubations over time remain missing. This study first introduces an analytical workflow combining Soxhlet extraction with proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for the accurate, high-throughput, and chemically selective quantification of eight commercially important biodegradable polyesters (i.e., poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate), polylactic acid, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate), polycaprolactone, polybutylene adipate, polybutylene azelate, and polybutylene succinate), and the nonbiodegradable polymer polystyrene, in six soils spanning a range of types and physicochemical properties. This work introduces an effective sample deployment–retrieval approach that, combined with the analytical method, allows the biodegradation of poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) and polylactic acid from a biodegradable mulch film in three agricultural soils to be monitored. In combination, the two parts of this work lay the foundation to accurately quantify and monitor biodegradable polymers in soils.