Rheological, thermal and mechanical characterization of PBAT/PCL/Stearates blends

Abstract

The slow degradation and the high environmental impact caused by inappropriate disposal of polymer products are the main factors prompting scientists to either substitute conventional polymers by biodegradable ones or to enhance biodegradation of short-lived polymer products, particularly those used in packaging. Polymer blends of conventional and biodegradable polymers is one of the alternative solutions found to improve mechanical properties and accelerate polymer degradation after disposal. This work investigates the effect of incorporating different metallic stearates (Zn and Mg) on the rheological, thermal and mechanical characteristics of 75PBAT/25PCL blends processed in an internal laboratory mixer. The results of torque rheometry suggest degradation during processing potentialized with the stearates incorporation, while that of DSC indicated that the crystallinity of the blends increased with the incorporation of additives. TG data showed a reduction in the thermal stability of the systems containing stearates. Incorporation of stearates resulted in strongly thermally degraded systems. Adding up to 0.25% of magnesium stearate to the blend 75PBAT/25PCL leads to a material that combines maintenance or improvement of properties combined with higher decomposition.

Poly (ε‐caprolactone)/polybutylene adipate terephthalate/hydroxyapatite blend nanocomposites: Morphology-thermal degradation kinetics relationship

“…As can be inferred from Figure 6, PCL exhibits a sharp endothermic peak due to the melting of the PCL crystalline phase and as expected, the melting temperature of PCL (𝑇 𝑚.𝑃𝐶𝐿 ) and melting enthalpy (Δ𝐻 𝑚 ), consequently, PCL crystallinity decreased by incorporation of PBAT in blend samples. This suggests that the crystallization of PCL in PCL/PBAT blends and nanocomposite molecules is hindered owing to the slight restriction imposed on the molecular motion of PCL by the existence of PBAT [30]. As deduced from Table 6 blend.…”

“…TGA experiments on PCL/PBAT/HA blend samples typically show a multi-step degradation process that is similar to the individual polymers [30]. According to the DTG graph, PCL presents a single-step degradation trend in which the main degradation step occurs at around 380-420°C, corresponding to the degradation of PCL chains into lower molecular weight fragments [21,22,28].…”

Effect of organoclay and corn straw on the properties of polycaprolactone composite films

“…Films for food packaging applications require, in addition to low crystallinity and low oxygen and carbon dioxide permeability, reasonable mechanical properties. PCL is well known for its excellent properties (high flexibility, impact and tearing resistance) (Reul et al, 2018;Sousa et al;Silva et al, 2022). Organoclay composites are reported to improve and preserve these characteristics (Santos et al, 2019;Almeida et al, 2017;Falcão et al, 2019).…”