Influence of processing conditions on morphological, thermal and degradative behavior of nanocomposites based on plasticized poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) and organo-modified clay

D. PUGLIA; E. FORTUNATI; D.A.DAMICO; V.MIRI; G.STOCLET; L. B. MANFREDI; V. P. CYRAS; J.M.KENNY

JOURNAL OF POLYMERS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS

Lugar: New York; Año: 2016 vol. 24 p. 12 - 22

1566-2543

The effect of processing conditions (casting and extrusion) and plasticization on the disintegrability in compost of organically modified clay poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) nanocomposites was studied. Tributylhexadecylphosphoniumbromide (TBHP) was used as organic modifier. As revealed by WAXS and TEM observations, intercalated nanobiocomposites with clay stacks and some individually dispersed platelets were obtained. The melting temperature of the neat PHB diminished with the addition of plasticizer, thus broadening the processing window. Biodegradation test revealed that while the clay slowsdown the degradation rate, the plasticizer increases the degradation of the samples, reaching a similar final percentage of disintegrability when both plasticizer and clay were added in the formulation.