Mechanical performance, water absorption behavior and biodegradability of poly(methyl methacrylate)-modified starch/SBR biocomposites

Abstract

Natural corn starch was modified by surface grafting with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) through emulsion copolymerization and then compounded with styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) latex in order to prepare PMMA-modified starch/SBR biocomposites. The effect of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and starch concentration on the mechanical properties, morphology, toluene swelling behavior, water absorption behavior and biodegradabil- ity of PMMA-modified starch/SBR biocomposites was investigated. Results showed that the optimum mechanical properties were achieved when the concentrations of MMA and starch were 10 and 30 phr, respectively, which could be also confirmed through the observations from FE-SEM micrographs and equilibrium welling test. Guth-Gold and Halpin-Tsai models were employed to predict the modulus of PMMA-modified starch/SBR biocomposites. Halpin- Tsai model was better fitted with the experimentally measured data than Guth-Gold model. The water absorption ratio of PMMA-modified starch/SBR biocomposites was strongly influenced by the immersion time and the starch concentration, which further caused a significant effect on the biodegradability of biocomposites.