INSIGHTS ON THE WETTABILITY AND SURFACE FREE ENERGY OF POLY (LACTIC ACID) - THERMOPLASTIC CASSAVA STARCH FILMS REINFORCED WITH GRAPHENE NANOPLATELETS

BHER, ANIBAL; SCHUSTER, JONATHAN M; AURAS, RAFAEL; MARIO ROBERTO ROSENBERGER; SCHVEZOV, C. E.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; SAP 2019; 2019

UTN ? Regional Buenos Aires y otras.

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and blends of PLA with others biopolymers as thermoplastic starches (TPS) are considered as novel and sustainable materials. Applications in the area of food and medical packaging, agriculture and automotive industries have extensively been reported (Castro-Aguirre et al., 2016). Furthermore, nanoparticles have been incorporated on PLA and TPS blends to improve mechanical, thermal, electrical, and barrier properties (Bher et al., 2018). For most applications the surface properties become relevant. Thus, the assessment of the wettability to water and surface free energy of these films must be determined in order to understand the characteristics and the hydrophilic/hydrophobic properties of the surfaces when in contact with a liquid or a solid material. In order to achieve this, the aim of this work was the analysis of the wettability and surface free energy of PLA and its blends with TPS, also reinforced with graphene nanoplatelets (GnP) by measuring the contact angle (CA) using the approach of the sessile drop technique.