[Growth of microfungi on the external polyethylene anticorrosive coating of oil-gas pipes].

The authors have studied the resistance of external anticorrosive polyethylene coat of oil-gas pipes (based on the high-density polyethylene, HDPE) to the action of microfungi, natural contamination, fungistatic and fungicide activity. It was found that the intensity of growth of standard test cultures on the surface of polyethylene coat increases in terms which imitate mineral and organic contaminations, and this results in the decrease of the index of its resistance to the action of microfungi. The microfungi, found in the process of study of natural contamination of polyethylene coat and its components, are presented by six species, Alternaria sp. most frequently occurring among them. The presence of admixtures of nitrogenic and phosphoric organic substances in chemical composition of control standards of adhesive and HDPE, which were not exposed to the influence of microfungi, was established by the method of IR spectroscopy. Changes of the IR spectra were noticed in the surface layer of high density polyethylene pellets under the influence of Penicillium funiculosum 171703 that evidences for the process of its slow oxidation. It is assumed that the damaging of the coating components is due to the presence in their chemical composition of impurities of nitrogen- and phosphorus-containing compounds that are easily absorbed by microscopic fungi.