Saharudin Mohd Shahneel, Wei Jiacheng, Shyha Islam, Inam Fawad
Department of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK.
Institute of Product Design and Manufacturing (UniKL IPROM), Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Cheras, 56100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Polymers (Basel). 2017 Jul 28;9(8):314. doi: 10.3390/polym9080314.
Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs)-polyester nanocomposites with four different concentrations were produced using solution casting technique and the biodegradation effect of short-term seawater exposure (120 h) was studied. Monolithic polyester was observed to have the highest seawater absorption with 1.37%. At 0.3 wt % HNTs reinforcement, the seawater absorption dropped significantly to the lowest value of 0.77% due to increase of liquid diffusion path. For samples tested in dry conditions, the , storage modulus, tensile properties and flexural properties were improved. The highest improvement of was from 79.3 to 82.4 °C (increase 3.1 °C) in the case of 0.3 wt % HNTs. This can be associated with the exfoliated HNTs particles, which restrict the mobility of polymer chains and thus raised the . After seawater exposure, the , storage modulus, tensile properties and flexural properties of polyester and its nanocomposites were decreased. The Young's modulus of 0.3 wt % HNTs-polyester dropped 20% while monolithic polyester dropped up to 24% compared to their values in dry condition. Apart from that, 29% flexural modulus reduction was observed, which was 18% higher than monolithic polyester. In contrast, fracture toughness and surface roughness increased due to plasticization effect. The presence of various microbial communities caused gradual biodegradation on the microstructure of the polyester matrix as also evidently shown by SEM images.
采用溶液浇铸技术制备了四种不同浓度的埃洛石纳米管（HNTs）-聚酯纳米复合材料，并研究了短期海水暴露（120小时）的生物降解效果。观察到整体聚酯的海水吸收率最高，为1.37%。在0.3 wt%的HNTs增强下，由于液体扩散路径的增加，海水吸收率显著下降至最低值0.77%。对于在干燥条件下测试的样品，其玻璃化转变温度、储能模量、拉伸性能和弯曲性能均得到改善。在0.3 wt%的HNTs情况下，玻璃化转变温度的最大提高是从79.3℃提高到82.4℃（升高3.1℃）。这可能与剥离的HNTs颗粒有关，它们限制了聚合物链的流动性，从而提高了玻璃化转变温度。海水暴露后，聚酯及其纳米复合材料的玻璃化转变温度、储能模量、拉伸性能和弯曲性能均下降。与干燥条件下的值相比，0.3 wt%的HNTs-聚酯的杨氏模量下降了20%，而整体聚酯下降了高达24%。除此之外，观察到弯曲模量降低了29%，比整体聚酯高18%。相比之下，由于增塑作用，断裂韧性和表面粗糙度增加。各种微生物群落的存在导致聚酯基体的微观结构逐渐发生生物降解，扫描电子显微镜图像也明显显示了这一点。
