Guidotti Giulia, Palumbo Arianna, Soccio Michelina, Gazzano Massimo, Salatelli Elisabetta, Siracusa Valentina M, Lotti Nadia
Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna, Via Terracini 28, 40131 Bologna, Italy.
Institute for Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, ISOF-CNR, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy.
Polymers (Basel). 2024 Aug 19;16(16):2342. doi: 10.3390/polym16162342.
In the present study, bio-based polymeric blends have been prepared for applications in the field of sustainable food packaging, starting from two furan-based homopolymers, poly(hexamethylene 2,5-furanoate) (PHF) and poly(pentamethylene 2,5-furanoate) (PPeF). PHF and PPeF were synthesized by two-step melt polycondensation-a solvent-free synthetic strategy-and then binary physical mixtures, PHF/PPeF, with different weight compositions were prepared by dissolution in a common solvent. The blends were processed into compression-moulded films, and molecular, morphological, structural, thermal, and mechanical characterizations were subsequently carried out. Blending did not negatively affect the thermal stability of the parent homopolymers, and good compatibility between them was observed. This strategy also allowed for the modulation of the chain rigidity as well as of the crystallinity, simply by acting on the relative weight amount of the homopolymers. From a mechanical point of view, the presence of PPeF led to a reduction in stiffness and an increase in the elongation at break, obtaining materials with an elastomeric behaviour. Evaluation of the gas barrier properties confirmed that the good barrier properties of PHF were preserved by blending. Finally, lab-scale composting tests confirmed a greater weight loss of the mixtures with respect to the PHF homopolymer.
在本研究中，从两种基于呋喃的均聚物聚（己二亚甲基2,5 - 呋喃酸酯）（PHF）和聚（戊二亚甲基2,5 - 呋喃酸酯）（PPeF）出发，制备了用于可持续食品包装领域的生物基聚合物共混物。PHF和PPeF通过两步熔融缩聚（一种无溶剂合成策略）合成，然后通过溶解在一种常见溶剂中制备了具有不同重量组成的二元物理混合物PHF/PPeF。将这些共混物加工成压模薄膜，随后进行分子、形态、结构、热学和力学表征。共混并未对母体均聚物的热稳定性产生负面影响，并且观察到它们之间具有良好的相容性。该策略还能够通过改变均聚物的相对重量比来调节链刚性以及结晶度。从力学角度来看，PPeF的存在导致刚度降低，断裂伸长率增加，从而获得具有弹性体行为的材料。气体阻隔性能评估证实，共混后PHF的良好阻隔性能得以保留。最后，实验室规模的堆肥试验证实，与PHF均聚物相比，混合物的重量损失更大。
