Non-Isothermal Crystallization of Titanium-Dioxide-Incorporated Rice Straw Fiber/Poly(butylene succinate) Biocomposites

Abstract

In this work, titanium dioxide (TiO2)-incorporated rice straw fiber (RS)/poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) biocomposites were prepared by injection molding with different TiO2 powder loadings. The RS/PBS with 1 wt% TiO2 demonstrated the best mechanical properties, where the flexural strength and modulus increased by 30.34% and 28.39%, respectively, compared with RS/PBS. The non-isothermal crystallization of neat PBS, RS/PBS composites, and titanium-dioxide-incorporated RS/PBS composites was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The non-isothermal crystallization data were analyzed using several theoretical models. The Avrami and Mo kinetic models described the non-isothermal crystallization behavior of neat PBS and the composites; however, the Ozawa model was inapplicable. The crystallization temperature (Tc), half-time of crystallization (t1/2), and kinetic parameters (FT) showed that the crystallizability followed the order: TiO2-incorporated RS/PBS composites > RS/PBS > PBS. The RS/PBS with 1 wt% TiO2 showed the best crystallization properties. The Friedman model was used to evaluate the effective activation energy of the non-isothermal crystallization of PBS and its composites. Rice straw fiber and TiO2 acted as nucleating agents for PBS. The XRD results showed that the addition of rice straw fiber and TiO2 did not substantially affect the crystal parameters of the PBS matrix. Overall, this study shows that RS and TiO2 can significantly improve the crystallization and mechanical properties of PBS composites.

Intumescent fire‐retardant performance and small‐scale reaction mechanism on banana/bio‐epoxy composites

“…The negative value of E a obtained for this material reveals that the crystallization process may occur spontaneously according to the previous. 62 The obtained E a magnitudes for BLF-based BC + 6%IFR are in good agreement with those obtained by Jimenez et al 24 discrepancies between both approaches in predicting the value of E a and A for all studied materials and varied atmospheric conditions. The value of E a and A for each model where each value has a small discrepancy from one method to another method, are shown in Table 5.…”

“…The higher peak slope observed than the isoconvertional lines obviously, indicates the existence of an accelerated reaction in this case. The negative value of E a obtained for this material reveals that the crystallization process may occur spontaneously according to the previous 62 …”

Biocomposite optimization with NaOH-modified bagasse fiber, polybutylene succinate, and poly(lactic acid) using RSM approach

“…To improve the toughness of PLA, biodegradable ductile polymers have been blended with PLA for toughening the composites. Polybutylene succinate (PBS) was considered as a commercially available polymer with superior biodegradability, high flexibility, and processability (Chang et al 2022;Yue et al 2022). It is one of the best options for recombination with PLA (Sasimowski et al 2021).…”

Preparation and Spectroscopic, Thermal, and Mechanical Characterization of Biocomposites of Poly(butylene succinate) and Onion Peels or Durum Wheat Bran

“…The main way to reduce the price of biodegradable polymer materials as well as to modify their properties is to use natural fillers such as wood chips [9], ground bran of wheat cereals [10][11][12], rice [13], ground coffee beans [14][15][16], shells of various nuts [17][18][19], natural fibers [20] (cellulose, hemp, flax, sugar cane, bamboo) and many other types of agricultural waste [21][22][23][24]. The latest works published in 2023 year on PBS compositions concerns the use of fillers such as biochar [25][26][27], flax and pineapple leaf fiber [28,29], graphene nanoplatelets and starch-based materials [30], biogenic wine by-products [31], plant fibers (jute, kenaf, flax, and hemp) [32], rice straw fiber [33], and nanofibrillated cellulose [34].…”