Statistical design of sustainable thermoplastic blends of poly(glycerol succinate-co-maleate) (PGSMA), poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS)

Abstract

The feasibility of designing novel sustainable thermoplastic materials containing poly(glycerol succinate-co-maleate) (PGSMA) as a way for upgrading glycerol utilization was explored. The target of the design was to fabricate sustainable blends of PGSMA, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) with mechanical performance comparable to petroleum based polypropylene and its copolymers. A feasibility region for PGSMA blend compositions was found using statistical mixture design of experiments (DOE) where tensile and impact properties were comparable to commercial polypropylene materials. The mechanical performance of new formulations in this feasibility region was modeled through linear regression and accurately predicted, with a prediction error of 5 and 13.5% for tensile and impact properties, respectively. A blend of 35/40/25 PGSMA/PLA/PBS displayed a tensile strength of 33.8 MPa, tensile modulus of 1.47 GPa and notched Izod impact of 159 J/m, being comparable to some commercially available polypropylene products.