Composites based on biodegradable thermoplastic starch and carbon nanotubes

L. FAMÁ, C. BERNAL, S. GOYANES

San Sebastián, España

Conferencia; V International Conference on Science and Technology of Composites Materials. ISBN 978-84-692-5483-7; 2009

Asociación Española de Materiales Compuestos

Novel nanocomposites were developed adding multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to a very low cost biodegradable matrix, in order to improve the material viscoelastic and water vapor permeability behaviour. Composite materials were obtained dissolving MWCNTs (wrapped in an aqueous solution of a starch-iodine complex) in a starch matrix. The morphology of the samples was studied by SEM. A vein pattern that became thinner and denser with increasing volume fraction of filler was observed. Moisture content and water vapour permeability were found to increase with carbon nanotubes content. In dynamic mechanical experiments, two different relaxations were observed. These relaxations were found to be sensitive to the introduction of the higher fraction of MWCNTs. An important increment in the storage modulus at room temperature was also found for the composites.