Abstract
Interest in biobased polymers from renewable resources has grown in recent years due to environmental concerns, but they still have a minimal fraction of the total global market. In this study, the injection molding of thermoplastic cellulose octanate (cellulose C8) and cellulose palmitate (cellulose C16) were studied. The mechanical properties of injection-molded test specimens were analyzed by using tensile testing, and the internal structure of injection-molded objects was studied by using a field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). We showed that thermoplastic cellulose C8 and cellulose C16 were completely processable without the addition of a plasticizer, which is very unusual in the case of cellulose esters. The compatibility of cellulose esters with poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and biopolyethylene (bio-PE) was also tested. By compounding the cellulose esters with PLA, the elongation of PLA-based blends could be improved and the density could be reduced. The tested thermoplastic cellulose materials were fully biobased, and have good future potential to be used in injection molding applications.
Highlights
Biobased polymers are materials that are produced from renewable resources
The reason was that the chain length of C16 was two times longer than C8, and CH2 shifts of the side chain of cellulose esters occurred in this range
Values of cellulose C8 and cellulose C16 were 1.5 and 1.2, respectively. These degree of substitution (DS) values were much lower compared to reported commercial thermoplastic celluloses (CAP and cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB)) [36,37]
Summary
Biobased polymers are materials that are produced from renewable resources. The interest in biobased polymers has grown in recent years due to environmental concerns, but they still have a minimal fraction of the total global plastic market. Cellulose is one of the most abundant natural polymers on earth, and can be regarded as an important raw material in multiple products such as textiles, papers, foods, cosmetics, and biomaterials [2]. Cellulose thermoplastic behavior can be improved, for example, by using long chain esterification [6,7]. Long chain cellulose esters with a chain length of fatty substituents ≥C6 (cellulose hexanoate) are biobased materials originating from renewable materials [8]. There is already commercially available shorter chain length cellulose acetate (CA), cellulose acetate propionate (CAP), and cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), which are thermoplastically processable
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