A promising sustainable PHB‐ZnO composite for development of biodegradable filaments

Abstract

AbstractThe development of new biodegradable composites with superior properties is an attractive approach to develop environmentally friendly materials with new potential applications. In this work, we prepared and characterized PHB filaments with different concentrations of ZnO particles (from 0.5 up to 16 wt%) to evaluate this mixture's effect on the physico‐chemical, thermal properties, and morphological biofilament characteristics. The FTIR and Raman results indicated a possible chemical interaction between the ZnO and PHB, altering the helical polymeric and crystalline structure. The ZnO particles increased the composites' thermal stability, mainly at higher filler contents, confirmed by Tonset and the thermal resistance index, associated with the interface between the particles and the PHB matrix. Also, DSC results indicated that higher ZnO contents increased the PHB amorphous characteristic, which facilitates its use as filaments. The microscopies allowed the evaluation of composites' morphology and indicated good filler dispersion and homogeneity, and the filament diameters were adequate to the FDM 3D printing technique. SEM‐EDS confirmed ZnO presence at filament structure, which probably stabilized the PHB matrix during the extrusion process and allowed the printing process for the PHB‐0.5%ZnO filaments into scaffolds, showing the potential application in additive manufacturing processes. These findings may expand PHB applications combining ZnO properties to develop functional and active materials for biomedical and packaging applications.