INTEMA   05428
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES EN CIENCIA Y TECNOLOGIA DE MATERIALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Effect of the addition of a natural compatibilizer on mechanical, thermal and barrier properties of polylactic acid/ poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) blends.
Autor/es:
MAGDALENA L. IGLESIAS MONTES; LILIANA B. MANFREDI; VIVIANA P. CYRAS; DAVID A. D'AMICO
Lugar:
Sevilla
Reunión:
Simposio; Fifth International Symposium Frontiers in Polymer Science; 2017
Resumen:
Biodegradable and biosource polymers have been extensively studied as alternatives to non-degradable polymers currently used in the food packaging industry. Two of the most promising biopolymers studied for this purpose are: polylactic acid (PLA) and poly (3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), both biodegradable and biocompatible polyesters which can be fully obtained from renewable resources. However, PLA and PHB present some disadvantages over oil-based plastics such as fragility and difficult processing as well as limited applications. In this context, blending techniques are an extremely promising approach which can improve polymer?s original properties. Blends provide numerous suitable properties which are the result of a combination of those of the pristine components. Most polymer pairs are immiscible but can be made compatible by adding a third component named as compatibilizer.In a previous work, blends with different ratio PLA (Nature Works)/PHB (PHB Industrial), compatibilized with 20 wt% of glyceryl tributyrate (TB) (Fluka) were obtained in a Haake mixer (185ºC and 50 rpm). Two ratios PLA/PHB: 70/30 and 60/40, resulted in materials with interesting mechanical properties. In this work, to further study the behaviour of the blends, the compatibilizer content was varied (10, 15 and 20 wt%) in these formulations to obtain a superior material. Mechanical, thermal and barrier properties were investigated by means of differential scanning calorimetry analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, water vapor permeation tests, opacity and uniaxial tensile tests.