Biodegradable Polymer Blends and Their Biocomposites: Compatibilization and Performance Evaluation
BIODEGRADABLE POLYMER BLENDS AND THEIR BIOCOMPOSITES: COMPATIBILIZATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION Non biodegradable polymers, polymer blends and composites are known to persist in the environment over a long time. The use of certain biodegradable polymers is limited as they often fail to match some of the non biodegradable counterpart perfromances. Blends of biodegradable polymers and composites with complementary attributes can provide materials that strike a balance between cost and performance. This research was focused on the fabrication and performance evaluation of biodegradable polymer blends and composites, as potential alternatives to non biodegradable polymeric materials. Industrially viable melt processing techniques like extrusion and injection molding were adopted to fabricate and evaluate the structure property relationship of biodegradable polymer blends and composites. In this research work, two different types of commercially available biodegradable polyesters, namely poly(butylene adipate co terephthalate) (PBAT) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) were used to fabricate binary blends and composites. Melt blending these two polymers yielded synergistic properties, which are not present in the respective polymers. The optimal PBS/PBAT blend was selected based on its overall performance and it was used as the standard biocomposite matrix. Miscanthus is a purpose grown energy crop and has not been explored much for polymer Advisor: Dr. Amar K. Mohanty Co advisor: Dr. Manjusri Misra Rajendran Muthuraj University of Guelph, 2015