Abstract
Biodegradable polymers (BP) are often regarded as the materials of the future, which address the rising environmental concerns. The advancement of biorefineries and sustainable technologies has yielded various BP with excellent properties comparable to commodity plastics. Water resistance, high dimensional stability, processability and excellent physicochemical properties limit the reviewed materials to biodegradable polyesters and modified compositions of starch and cellulose, both known for their abundance and relatively low price. The addition of different nanofillers and preparation of polymer nanocomposites can effectively improve BP with controlled functional properties and change the rate of degradation. The lack of data on the durability of biodegradable polymer nanocomposites (BPN) has been the motivation for the current review that summarizes recent literature data on environmental ageing of BPN and the role of nanofillers, their basic engineering properties and potential applications. Various durability tests discussed thermal ageing, photo-oxidative ageing, water absorption, hygrothermal ageing and creep testing. It was discussed that incorporating nanofillers into BP could attenuate the loss of mechanical properties and improve durability. Although, in the case of poor dispersion, the addition of the nanofillers can lead to even faster degradation, depending on the structural integrity and the state of interfacial adhesion. Selected models that describe the durability performance of BPN were considered in the review. These can be applied as a practical tool to design BPN with tailored property degradationand durability.
Highlights
With an increasing global awareness of plastic wastes, there is a huge demand for environmentally friendly solutions such as biodegradable polymers (BP) [1,2]
We focus only on several cheap, abundant biodegradable biopolymers — polylactide (PLA), polycaprolactone (PCL), polybutylene succinate (PBS), polybutylene adipate-terephtalate (PBAT), polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and thermoplastic starch (TPS)
Significant improvement in barrier properties of poly(D,L-lactide) (PDLLA), i.e., water absorption resistance, was obtained by the addition of the CNW (Figure 6) [13]. These results showed that even a small quantity of cellulose nanowhiskers (1 wt.%) inhibited water absorption and retarded the degradation, modifying the kinetics of the hydrolytic process in PDLLA polymers
Summary
With an increasing global awareness of plastic wastes, there is a huge demand for environmentally friendly solutions such as biodegradable polymers (BP) [1,2]. Insufficient knowledge of mechanical properties, durability and long-term performance under environmental ageing restricts this new class of sustainable materials for advanced applications [9,10,11]. The main engineering properties of biodegradable polymer nanocomposites (BPN) were summarized in several recent reviews [21,22,23,24,25]. Different properties and potential applications of bio-based poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) composites, including nanocomposites, were highlighted in [25]. The potential of BPN under different environmental conditions should be thoroughly reviewed and understood to expand their applications to long-term and advanced solutions. Polymers 2021, 13, 3375 literature results on the durability performance of BP and BPN were analyzed under environmental ageing and mechanical load conditions. Some existing models for BPN durability prediction were reviewed and discussed
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