Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Understanding the Effects of Adding Metal Oxides to Bioplastic and Bioplastic Blends on the Mechanical and Rheological Behaviour, Wettability, and Photo-Oxidation Resistance

Elisabetta Morici
* ,
Giuseppe Pecoraro
,
Sabrina Carola Carroccio
ORCID logo ,
Elena Bruno
,
Paola Scarfato
ORCID logo ,
Giovanni Filippone
ORCID logo ,
Nadka Tz. Dintcheva
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 5 March 2024 / Approved: 6 March 2024 / Online: 6 March 2024 (14:02:10 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Morici, E.; Pecoraro, G.; Carroccio, S.C.; Bruno, E.; Scarfato, P.; Filippone, G.; Dintcheva, N.T. Understanding the Effects of Adding Metal Oxides to Polylactic Acid and Polylactic Acid Blends on Mechanical and Rheological Behaviour, Wettability, and Photo-Oxidation Resistance. Polymers 2024, 16, 922. Morici, E.; Pecoraro, G.; Carroccio, S.C.; Bruno, E.; Scarfato, P.; Filippone, G.; Dintcheva, N.T. Understanding the Effects of Adding Metal Oxides to Polylactic Acid and Polylactic Acid Blends on Mechanical and Rheological Behaviour, Wettability, and Photo-Oxidation Resistance. Polymers 2024, 16, 922.

Abstract

Biopolymers are of growing interest, but to improve some of their poor properties and performance, it is required the formulation of bio-based blends and/or adding of nanoparticles. For this purpose, in this work, two different metal oxides, such as zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2), at different concentrations (0.5, 1 and 2 %wt.) have been added in polylactic acid (PLA) and polylactic acid/polyamide 11 (PLA/PA11) blends to establish their effects on solid-state properties, morphology, melt behaviour, and photo-oxidation resistance. It seems that the addition of ZnO in PLA leads to a significant reduction of its rigidity probably due to an inefficient dispersion in the melt state, while the addition of TiO2 does not penalise PLA rigidity. Interestingly, the addition of both ZnO and TiO2 in PLA/PA11 blend has a positive effect on the rigidity because of blend morphology refinement and leads to a slight increase in film hydrophobicity. The photo-oxidation resistance of neat PLA and PLA/PA11 blend is significantly reduced due to the presence of both metal oxides, and this must be considered when designing the potential applications. The last results suggest that both metal oxides could be considered as photo-sensitive degradant agents for biopolymer and biopolymer blends.

Keywords

biopolymers; biopolymer blends; metal oxides; morphology refinement; photo-sensitive degradant agents

Subject

Chemistry and Materials Science, Polymers and Plastics

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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