Processing and characterization of bentonite North Aceh as filler blend with chitosan to increase specific properties of PCL (poly ε - caprolactone)

Abstract

Poly ε-caprolactone (PCL) gets a lot of attention, and shows great potential in some applications among synthetic polymers. This is because the thermoplastic polymer posses some desirable features, including good stability, and easy of process. PCL also had some specific properties when it blended with organic or inorganic filler. Bentonite (montmorillonite/clay) has been studied as one of filler material used for improving the genuine properties of polymer. The modifying process of bentonite is an initial stage before mixing with PCL matrix to form a composite, it consist of purification and opening stage of d-spacing layer with surfactant for several size of bentonite (100,120, 150, 200 and 250 mesh). Some characterization have been done to measure how good the filler is. CEC value was obtained at size of 250 mesh of 79.00 meq/100 g. From the results of X-RD (X-Ray Diffraction) analysis shows the increasing bentonite d-pacing layer since before and after the modification process equal to 0,425 nm. FT-IR analysis identify the functional groups contained in bentonite, the Si-O and Al-O vibrations appear on wave numbers 420 cm-1-1200 cm-1. To identify the biomedical properties of PCL, chitosan nanoparticle has been added as filler with bentonite biomedical material applications such as for medical tools. The results of Tensile Test showed that the presence of modified chitosan-bentonite in PCL polymer improve the mechanical properties of the composite, the composition of filler Bentonit-Chitosan 7% is the maximum value of 290 Mpa.