From Waste to Reuse: Manufacture of Ecological Composites Based on Biopolyethylene/wood Powder with PE-g-MA and Macaíba Oil

Abstract

This work aimed to investigate the biopolyethylene (BioPE)/wood powder (WP) composites compatibilized with polyethylene-grafted maleic anhydride (PE-g-MA), using macaíba oil (OM) as a processing aid. The composites were prepared, initially, in an internal mixer and, later, the crushed akes were molded by injection. Mechanical properties (impact, tensile, exural and Shore D hardness), heat de ection temperature (HDT), Vicat softening temperature, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetry (TG), water absorption, torque rheometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were evaluated. The addition of 30% wood powder to the BioPE matrix increased the elastic modulus (tensile and exural), Shore D hardness and heat de ection temperature (HDT), compared to neat BioPE. These properties were improved when 10% of the PE-g-MA compatibilizer was added, compared to neat BioPE and the non-compatibilized composite. There was a signi cant reduction in the torque of the composites with the addition of macaíba oil, indicating that it improved the processability. In addition, the incorporation of macaíba oil into the composites helped to reduce water absorption, as well as to increase impact strength. SEM micrographs illustrated a greater degree of interfacial adhesion when PEg-MA and macaiba oil were added.

Production of Eco-Sustainable Materials: Compatibilizing Action in Poly (Lactic Acid)/High-Density Biopolyethylene Bioblends

“…For PLA during heating, from the glass transition temperature (Tg) around 57-62 °C, an exothermic peak immediately before melting originating from the cold crystallization of the disordered α phase, then an endothermic peak ranging from 115.4 to 150.4 °C is observed in Figure 1A [34]. DSC scans of BioPE samples show the endothermic peak due to the melting with peak temperature at 136.8 °C, and the exothermic peak during cooling due to the melting crystallization with the temperature at 113.6 °C [35]. For PLA/BioPE samples, DSC scans displayed the exothermic and endothermic peaks characteristic of the individual polymers, whether compatibilized or not.…”

“…PLA displayed a typical fragile character with low energy dissipation with an impact strength of 27 J/m, which is in agreement with those already reported [12,[14][15][16]27,38,42,43], and corroborated through SEM images later on presented (Figure 11). BioPE presented a typical ductile character with an impact strength of approximately 98 J/m [35]. Upon addition of 30% BioPE to PLA, there was an increase of 20% for PLA/BioPE related to PLA, even with the poor adhesion between the phases (see Figure 11).…”

“…Figure 3 presents TG plots of investigated samples and computed parameters from these plots are displayed in Table 5. From Figure 3 it is observed that neat polymers presented a single decomposition step, around 300-373 °C for PLA [36][37][38], and 350-496 °C for BioPE [35]. For PLA/BioPE bioblend, two decomposition steps were verified, where each decomposition step is characteristic of the individual polymer, i.e., PLA and BioPE.…”

Biopolyethylene/Morinda citrifolia cellulosic biocomposites: The impact of chemical crosslinking and PE‐g‐MA compatibilizer

“…Furthermore, there was T m = melting temperature; T C = crystallization temperature; ΔH m = melting enthalpy; X c = degree of crystallinity, determined by X c = ( ΔHm W PE ÂΔHf 100% ) Â 100%, where ΔH f 100% = melting enthalpy for 100% crystalline polyethylene, 293 J/g. [77,78] a slight shift in the crystallization rate of the biocomposites to higher temperatures. Figure 14B indicates that the curves presented a sigmoidal shape without discontinuities, confirming the DSC curves.…”

Compostos de biopolietileno/línter de algodão compatibilizados com PE-g-MA

“…Além de ser um material ecológico, o Bio-PE apresenta as mesmas propriedades técnicas e processáveis da resina feita a partir de fontes fósseis (Brito et al, 2012;Luna et al, 2021). Por isso, o desenvolvimento de compósitos com matriz polimérica de Bio-PE é considerado primordial, tanto pelo potencial de aplicação tecnológica, como pela diminuição dos impactos ambientais (Castro et al, 2012;Silva et al, 2021).…”