Development of degradable poly(ethylene terephthalate)‐based nanocomposites with the aid of polylactic acid and graphenic materials: Thermal, thermo‐oxidative and hydrolytic degradation characteristics

Abstract

Poly(ethylene terephthalate)/poly(lactic acid) (PET/PLA) blends with composition of 90/10 and 75/25 (wt %/wt %) along with two types of graphenic materials, namely graphene oxide (GO) and exfoliated graphite (xGnP), were prepared through one‐step melt mixing process. The Thermal, thermo‐oxidative, and hydrolytic degradation characteristics of the developed degradable PET‐based nanocomposites were investigated. Thermal degradation studies by thermogravimetry analysis and melt rheological analysis in N2 atmosphere, revealed that unlike xGnP, the addition of GO to the blends reduced their thermal stability leading to reduction of viscosity and elasticity of the blends. The behavior was attributed to the role of GO in enhancing the chain scission reactions. In the air atmosphere, the barrier properties of the graphenic materials prevailed. Compared to xGnP, the relatively well‐dispersed GO showed better barrier against oxygen and increased the thermo‐oxidative stability of the blends. Investigation of the hydrocatalytic degradation of developed systems, at different pH of 2 and 4, over a period of 40 days at 37 °C, showed that the amount of weight loss of the GO‐containing nanocomposite systems was higher than that of xGnP. The overall results of thermal, thermo‐oxidative, and hydrocatalytic degradation studies confirmed the prominent role of GO in the development of degradable PET‐based products. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020, 137, 48466.

Effect of nucleating agents on the non‐isothermal crystallization and degradation kinetics of poly(ethylene terephthalate)

“…Various kinetic models were followed to find out the E a for the PET thermal degradation. Thermo oxidative and hydrolytic degradation behavior of PET/graphene nanocomposite was reported in the literature 21 . Similarly, thermal degradation kinetics of PET in the presence of BaSO 4 , 22 modified montmorillonite, 23 commercial fire retardants 24 and p‐hydroxybenzoicacid 25 was done and reported in the literature.…”

Evaluating the mechanical, thermal, and antibacterial properties of poly (lactic acid)/silicone rubber blends reinforced with (3‐aminopropyl) triethoxysilane‐functionalized titanium dioxide nanoparticles

“…Various strategies have been applied to solve this problem, among which polymer blending has been confirmed as one of the most efficient and costeffective techniques. [28][29][30][31] Rubbers or ductile polymers such as poly(butylene adipate-co-butylene terephthalate) (PBAT), [32] ethyleneacrylic ester-glycidyl methacrylate terpolymer (EGMA), [33] ethylene-vinyl acetate-glycidyl methacrylate elastomer (EVMG), [34] poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL), [35] etc., exhibit excellent extensibility and energy absorption properties. Due to these significant properties, the blending of PLA with them has attracted a lot of attention.…”

“…Various strategies have been applied to solve this problem, among which polymer blending has been confirmed as one of the most efficient and cost‐effective techniques. [ 28–31 ]…”

Effect of processing temperature and mixing time on the properties of PP/GnP nanocomposites

“…Although some papers [28][29][30][31][32] have investigated the improved thermal stability of GnP based nanocomposites, to our best knowledge, no scientific papers are reported in the literature concerning the possible thermo-mechanical and thermo-oxidative degradation during the preparation of the nanocomposites or during the processing necessary to obtain the manufactures. In this work polypropylene (PP) based nanocomposites with graphene nanoplatelets were prepared in different mixing conditions and their properties were investigated.…”