Influence of processing conditions on morphological, thermal and degradative behavior of nanocomposites based on plasticized poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) and organo-modified clay

Abstract

The effect of processing conditions (casting and extrusion) and plasticization on the disintegrability in compost of organically modified clay poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) nanocomposites was studied. Tributylhexadecylphosphonium bromide was used as organic modifier. As revealed by WAXS and TEM observations, Intercalated nano-biocomposites with clay stacks and some individually dispersed platelets were obtained. The melting temperature of the neat PHB diminished with the addition of plasticizer broadening the processing window.Biodegradation test revealed that while the clay slows down the degradation rate, the plasticizer increases the degradation of the samples, reaching a similar final percentage of disintegrability when both plasticizer and clay were added in the formulation.