Partial Biodegradable Blend with High Stability against Biodegradation for Fused Deposition Modeling

Abstract

This research presents a partial biodegradable polymeric blend aimed for large-scale fused deposition modeling (FDM). The literature reports partial biodegradable blends with high contents of fossil fuel-based polymers (>20%) that make them unfriendly to the ecosystem. Furthermore, the reported polymer systems neither present good mechanical strength nor have been investigated in vulnerable environments that results in biodegradation. This research, as a continuity of previous work, presents the stability against biodegradability of a partial biodegradable blend prepared with polylactic acid (PLA) and polypropylene (PP). The blend is designed with intended excess physical interlocking and sufficient chemical grafting, which has only been investigated for thermal and hydrolytic degradation before by the same authors. The research presents, for the first time, ANOVA analysis for the statistical evaluation of endurance against biodegradability. The statistical results are complemented with thermochemical and visual analysis. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) determines the signs of intermolecular interactions that are further confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermochemical interactions observed in FTIR and DSC are validated with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is also used as a visual technique to affirm the physical interlocking. It is concluded that the blend exhibits high stability against soil biodegradation in terms of high mechanical strength and high mass retention percentage.

Tannin improves the processability and delays the biodegradability of poly (lactic acid)‐starch‐based thermoset materials produced by injection molding made with renewable compounds

“…In addition, the WAC results also suggests that BTM‐TAN is slightly less hydrophilic than BTM‐CONT, considering the lower amount of absorbed water in samples soaked in water for 5 min (Table 2). Similar variations of peak area of bands representing the asymmetrical vibration of CH 3 (1459 cm −1 ), symmetrical vibration of CH (1383 cm −1 ), stretching vibration of OCO (1084 cm −1 ), and CO stretch (868 cm −1 ) further support a delayed biodegradation of BTM‐TAN in the conditions studied 36,41 …”

“…For both BTMs, the peak area of carbonyl groups decreased at early biodegradation stages (30‐day biodegradation), following an increase in these values after 60‐day biodegradation. The initial decrease observed can be due to the chemical grafting of PLA induced by the biodegrading microbiota, 36 that may undergone randomly along the polymeric chain in the presence of water. The subsequent increase of the peak area referred to carbonyl groups detected after 60 days of biodegradation in both samples may be related to an increase in carboxyl end groups in the C‐rich polymers, with the left shoulder indicating the formation of free CO and the right shoulder representing the formation of esters of low molecular weight 37–39 …”

Failures and Flaws in Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) Additively Manufactured Polymers and Composites

“…As stated previously in Section 1.1, FDM can be used to produce composites. When mixing those composites, it is very important to know the bonding mechanism, mechanical performance, fatigue behavior, rheological behavior, and thermal properties of the individual components [51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. The bonding mechanism between polymers can be affected by many different things.…”

“…However, there are several cases in which the composite needs to have a high stability to resist biodegradation. In a study published by Harris et al, it was found that a composite that had a partial biodegrading blend had a better stability than blends that were made with nondegrading polymers [56].…”

Design and Development of Hot Vapour Polishing System and Optimization of It’s Process Parameters for FDM Printed Parts

“…of melt filament [9] and print time, and also how feasible is the process, to be carried out in a controlled (closed) environment [10,11]. In some cases, pre-processing also involves changing the composition or micro-structure of the filament material to produce components with better surface finish, mechanical properties, and industrial application [12][13][14][15].…”