Analysis of Selected Properties of Injection Moulded Sustainable Biocomposites from Poly(butylene succinate) and Wheat Bran.

Emil Sasimowski,Łukasz Majewski,Marta Grochowicz

doi:10.3390/ma14227049

Emil Sasimowski, Łukasz Majewski + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14227049

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Abstract

The paper presents a procedure of the manufacturing and complex analysis of the properties of injection mouldings made of polymeric composites based on the poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) matrix with the addition of a natural filler in the form of wheat bran (WB). The scope of the research included measurements of processing shrinkage and density, analysis of the chemical structure, measurements of the thermal and thermo-mechanical properties (Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TG), Heat Deflection Temperature (HDT), and Vicat Softening Temperature (VST)), and measurements of the mechanical properties (hardness, impact strength, and static tensile test). The measurements were performed using design of experiment (DOE) methods, which made it possible to determine the investigated relationships in the form of polynomials and response surfaces. The mass content of the filler and the extruder screw speed during the production of the biocomposite granulate, which was used for the injection moulding of the test samples, constituted the variable factors adopted in the DOE. The study showed significant differences in the processing, thermal, and mechanical properties studied for individual systems of the DOE.

Highlights

Over the past several years, environmental issues have been increasingly raised, prompted by alarming reports of the environmental pollution caused by excessive use of petrochemical plastics [1,2,3,4,5,6]
poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), like most of biodegradable polymers, has one significant disadvantage—a manifold higher price compared to traditional polyolefins of petrochemical origin, such as polypropylene or polyethylene [19,23,24]
The collected results of the experimental investigations on the properties of the injection mouldings of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) biocomposition filled with wheat bran are presented in Tables 1 and 2

Summary

Introduction

Over the past several years, environmental issues have been increasingly raised, prompted by alarming reports of the environmental pollution caused by excessive use of petrochemical plastics [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Numerous complex compositions of multiple biodegradable polymers in various ratios are used for that purpose [9,10,11,12] Examples of such polymeric materials used to produce biocomposites include polylactide [13], polyvinyl alcohol [14], poly(hydroxyalkanoates) [15], polycaprolactone [16], and one of the more interesting—. PBS, like most of biodegradable polymers, has one significant disadvantage—a manifold higher price compared to traditional polyolefins of petrochemical origin, such as polypropylene or polyethylene [19,23,24] This reduces its industrial popularity by excluding it from common use and marginalizing it to industries with high production costs [25,26]. The area of our current interest includes PBS-based polymer biocomposites with the addition of low-cost natural fillers, whose addition facilitates the possibility to reach the price competitiveness level, but often provides a unique set of properties [21,32,33]

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