Kiani Aida, Naddeo Mattia, Santulli Federica, Volpe Valentina, Mazzeo Mina, Acocella Maria Rosaria
Dipartimento di Chimica e Biologia "A. Zambelli", Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, I-84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy.
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II, I-84084 Fisciano, SA, Italy.
Molecules. 2024 Dec 29;30(1):94. doi: 10.3390/molecules30010094.
The functionalization of carbon black (CB) represents a promising strategy to enhance its compatibility with polymers while addressing sustainability concerns. In this study, a solvent-free mechanochemical approach (ball milling) is proposed for the functionalization of oxidized carbon black (oCB) with post-consumed polylactic acid (PLA), overcoming the environmental drawbacks of conventional methods that mostly rely on toxic solvents and catalysts. The functionalized carbon black (f-CB) was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), elemental analysis (EA), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to confirm the successful modification. At the same time, the influence of f-CB as a nanofiller of residual PLA waste was evaluated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and gel permeation chromatography (GPC), demonstrating its stabilization effect during melt extrusion by preserving the molecular weight of the starting polymer. On the other hand, the dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed that the addition of f-CB did not negatively affect the mechanical properties of the resulting composite. In conclusion, mechanochemistry was used as a sustainable and unique strategy for the upcycling of waste PLA into a PLA-based composite stabilized by CB functionalized with the waste PLA itself.
炭黑（CB）功能化是一种很有前景的策略，既能增强其与聚合物的相容性，又能解决可持续性问题。本研究提出一种无溶剂机械化学方法（球磨），用于用消费后的聚乳酸（PLA）对氧化炭黑（oCB）进行功能化，克服了传统方法大多依赖有毒溶剂和催化剂的环境缺陷。通过傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）、元素分析（EA）和热重分析（TGA）对功能化炭黑（f-CB）进行表征，以确认改性成功。同时，使用差示扫描量热法（DSC）和凝胶渗透色谱法（GPC）评估了f-CB作为残余PLA废料纳米填料的影响，证明了其在熔融挤出过程中通过保留起始聚合物的分子量起到的稳定作用。另一方面，动态力学分析（DMA）表明，添加f-CB不会对所得复合材料的力学性能产生负面影响。总之，机械化学被用作一种可持续且独特的策略，将废弃PLA升级循环为一种基于PLA的复合材料，该复合材料由用废弃PLA本身功能化的CB稳定。
