Shojaeiarani Jamileh, Bajwa Dilpreet S, Rehovsky Chad, Bajwa Sreekala G, Vahidi Ghazal
Department of Mechanical Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA.
Department of Agriculture and Biosystem Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA.
Polymers (Basel). 2019 Jan 2;11(1):58. doi: 10.3390/polym11010058.
Biopolymers are an emerging class of materials being widely pursued due to their ability to degrade in short periods of time. Understanding and evaluating the recyclability of biopolymers is paramount for their sustainable and efficient use in a cost-effective manner. Recycling has proven to be an important solution, to control environmental and waste management issues. This paper presents the first recycling assessment of Solanyl, Bioflex, polylactic acid (PLA) and PHBV using a melt extrusion process. All biopolymers were subjected to five reprocessing cycles. The thermal and mechanical properties of the biopolymers were investigated by GPC, TGA, DSC, mechanical test, and DMA. The molecular weights of Bioflex and Solanyl showed no susceptible effect of the recycling process, however, a significant reduction was observed in the molecular weight of PLA and PHBV. The inherent thermo-mechanical degradation in PHBV and PLA resulted in 20% and 7% reduction in storage modulus, respectively while minimal reduction was observed in the storage modulus of Bioflex and Solanyl. As expected from the Florry-Fox equation, recycled PLA with a high reduction in molecular weight (78%) experienced 9% reduction in glass transition temperature. Bioflex and Solanyl showed 5% and 2% reduction in molecular weight and experienced only 2% reduction in glass transition temperature. These findings highlight the recyclability potential of Bioflex and Solanyl over PLA and PHBV.
生物聚合物是一类新兴材料,因其能够在短时间内降解而受到广泛关注。了解和评估生物聚合物的可回收性对于以经济高效的方式实现其可持续利用至关重要。事实证明,回收利用是解决环境和废物管理问题的重要途径。本文首次使用熔融挤出工艺对索拉尼尔、生物柔性材料、聚乳酸(PLA)和聚羟基丁酸戊酸共聚酯(PHBV)进行了回收评估。所有生物聚合物都经历了五个再加工循环。通过凝胶渗透色谱法(GPC)、热重分析法(TGA)、差示扫描量热法(DSC)、力学测试和动态热机械分析(DMA)对生物聚合物的热性能和力学性能进行了研究。生物柔性材料和索拉尼尔的分子量在回收过程中未显示出明显影响,然而,聚乳酸和聚羟基丁酸戊酸共聚酯的分子量却显著降低。聚羟基丁酸戊酸共聚酯和聚乳酸固有的热机械降解分别导致储能模量降低了20%和7%,而生物柔性材料和索拉尼尔的储能模量降低幅度最小。正如弗洛里-福克斯方程所预期的那样,分子量大幅降低(78%)的回收聚乳酸的玻璃化转变温度降低了9%。生物柔性材料和索拉尼尔的分子量分别降低了5%和2%,玻璃化转变温度仅降低了2%。这些发现突出了生物柔性材料和索拉尼尔相对于聚乳酸和聚羟基丁酸戊酸共聚酯的回收潜力。