Abstract
Polylactic acid (PLA)/polybutylene succinate (PBS)/wood flour (WF) biocomposites were fabricated by in situ reactive extrusion with coupling agents. Methylenediphenyl 4,4’-diisocyanate (MDI) and maleic anhydride (MA) were used as coupling agents. To evaluate the effects of MDI and MA, various properties (i.e., interfacial adhesion, mechanical, thermal, and viscoelastic properties) were investigated. PLA/PBS/WF biocomposites without coupling agents revealed poor interfacial adhesion leading to deteriorated properties. However, the incorporation of MDI and/or MA into biocomposites showed high performances by increasing interfacial adhesion. For instance, the incorporation of MDI resulted in improved tensile, flexural, and impact strengths and an increase in tensile and flexural modulus was observed by the incorporation of MA. Specially, remarkably improved thermal stability was found in the PLA/PBS/WF biocomposites with 1 phr MDI and 1 phr MA. Also, the addition of MDI or MA into biocomposites increased the glass transition temperature and crystallinity, respectively. For viscoelastic property, the PLA/PBS/WF biocomposites with 1 phr MDI and 1 phr MA achieved significant enhancement in storage modulus compared to biocomposites without coupling agents. Therefore, the most balanced performances were evident in the PLA/PBS/WF biocomposites with the hybrid incorporation of small quantities of MDI and MA.
Highlights
Environmental pollution caused by petrochemical-based polymers has attracted much attentions because it is an important issue in daily life
The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of MDI and maleic anhydride (MA) as coupling agents on the interfacial adhesion, mechanical, thermal, and viscoelastic properties of Polylactic acid (PLA)/polybutylene succinate (PBS)/Wood flour (WF) biocomposites
Shown in Figures and 6, the increase tensile and strength values was the highest for and the the lowest for the PLA/PBS/WF. This is because the interfacial adhesion was PLA/PBS/WF biocomposites with MDI and the lowest for the PLA/PBS/WF biocomposites with MA
Summary
Environmental pollution caused by petrochemical-based polymers has attracted much attentions because it is an important issue in daily life. As a solution to this problem, there is a growing interest in biodegradable polymers due to the advantage of biodegradability after use [1,2,3]. PLA has been applied to various industries because of its biodegradability, ease of processing, good mechanical property, biocompatibility, and transparency [5]. Its disadvantages of brittleness, low melt strength, reduced durability, and low thermal stability limit its application in advanced industries [5,6]. One way to improve the limited properties of PLA can be demonstrated by mixing it with other
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