Affiliations 

  • 1 Laboratory of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
  • 2 Kulliyan of Engineering (KOE), Islamic International University Malaysia, Gombak 53100, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 3 Department of Applied Sciences, Higher College of Technology, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Al-Khuwair, Muscat 133, Oman
  • 4 Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 22452, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Polymers (Basel), 2021 Feb 01;13(3).
PMID: 33535490 DOI: 10.3390/polym13030465

Abstract

The present study aims to develop a biodegradable polymer blend that is environmentally friendly and has comparable tensile and thermal properties with synthetic plastics. In this work, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) extracted from bamboo-chips-reinforced poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and poly (butylene succinate) (PBS) blend composites were fabricated by melt-mixing at 180 °C and then hot pressing at 180 °C. PBS and MCC (0.5, 1, 1.5 wt%) were added to improve the brittle nature of PLA. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermogravimetry (DTG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)), and universal testing machine were used to analyze morphology, crystallinity, physiochemical, thermal, and tensile properties, respectively. The thermal stability of the PLA-PBS blends enhanced on addition of MCC up to 1wt % due to their uniform dispersion in the polymer matrix. Tensile properties declined on addition of PBS and increased with MCC above (0.5 wt%) however except elongation at break increased on addition of PBS then decreased insignificantly on addition of MCC. Thus, PBS and MCC addition in PLA matrix decreases the brittleness, making it a potential contender that could be considered to replace plastics that are used for food packaging.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.