Disintegrability of plasticized PHB-based nanocomposites under composting conditions

FORTUNATI, ELENA; CYRAS, VIVIANA PAOLA; SEOANE, IRENE TERESITA; MANFREDI, LILIANA BEATRIZ; PUGLIA, DEBORA

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Simposio; XIII Simposio Argentino de Polímeros 2019; 2019

CITEMA - Facultad de Física (UBA) - INTI - UTN.BA - CIHIDECAR - INIFTA - ITPN - CIDCA - 3iA UNSAM

Most of the synthetic polymers are produced from petrochemicals and these materials are not easily degradable, causing environmental problems. In recent years, research has been focusing to replace fossil or non-degradable raw materials by biodegradable or recyclable materials in the manufacture of food packaging.Poly(hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), a poly(hydroxyalcanoate) biosynthesized by microorganisms., is a high crystalline and fully biodegradable polymeric material. Due to its high crystallinity and hydrophobic character, PHB has excellent barrier properties to use on films. However, PHB presents some problems, such as high cost, brittleness, slow crystallization rate and a narrow window for the processing conditions. The development of plasticized nanocomposites promises to expand the use of biodegradable films, improving matrix properties. The plasticizers are used to improve flexibility and processability of polymers, reducing the glass transition temperature (Tg), also other properties such as crystallinity, elongation at break and permeation could be affected. Additionally, cellulose nanoparticles are good candidates for properties improvement, due to their abundance, high strength and stiffness, low weight and biodegradability.In this work, plasticized PHB-based nanocomposites with Tributyrin (TB) or poly[di(ethylene glycol) adipate] (A) as plasticizers and reinforced with either bacterial cellulose (BC) or cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), were produced. The effects of adding both plasticizers (20 wt % respect to the PHB content) and biobased selected nanofillers added at different contents (2 and 4 wt %) on disintegrability under simulated composting conditions were studied.