Takatsuna Yuuki, Reimhult Erik, Zirbs Ronald
Institute of Colloid and Biointerface Science (ICBS), Department of Natural Sciences and Sustainable Resources, BOKU University Muthgasse 11 1190 Vienna Austria
RSC Adv. 2025 Jul 21;15(32):25902-25909. doi: 10.1039/d5ra04324g.
The growing need to reduce plastic waste has prompted the development of bio-based and biodegradable materials. Cellulose is attracting increasing attention as a sustainable filler candidate due to its renewability, abundance, and favorable mechanical properties. Its application in polylactic acid (PLA)-based composites has been extensively studied and has demonstrated improvements in mechanical strength, barrier properties, and processability. However, the use of nanocellulose in other biodegradable polymers such as poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(butylene adipate--terephthalate) (PBAT) remains limited, despite their industrial significance. In this study, we developed matrix-adapted cellulose nanoparticles by grafting PBS or PBAT onto cellulose regenerated from aqueous sodium hydroxide solution. Grafting was carried out melt polycondensation, resulting in nano-sized particles with average sizes of approximately 100 nm for PBS and 175 nm for PBAT. These surface-modified particles exhibited improved thermal stability and high polymer content, reaching 25 wt% for PBS and 50 wt% for PBAT, indicating successful grafting, which is expected to facilitate compatibility with the target biodegradable matrices. This work provides a new approach for the rational design of biodegradable nanocomposites beyond PLA and contributes to the development of sustainable high-performance materials.
减少塑料垃圾的需求日益增长，这促使了生物基和可生物降解材料的发展。纤维素因其可再生性、丰富性和良好的机械性能，作为一种可持续的填料候选物正受到越来越多的关注。其在聚乳酸（PLA）基复合材料中的应用已得到广泛研究，并已证明在机械强度、阻隔性能和加工性能方面有所改善。然而，尽管聚丁二酸丁二醇酯（PBS）和聚己二酸-对苯二甲酸丁二醇酯（PBAT）具有工业重要性，但纳米纤维素在其他可生物降解聚合物中的应用仍然有限。在本研究中，我们通过将PBS或PBAT接枝到从氢氧化钠水溶液中再生的纤维素上，开发了与基体适配的纤维素纳米颗粒。接枝是通过熔融缩聚进行的，得到的纳米颗粒平均尺寸约为100 nm（PBS）和175 nm（PBAT）。这些表面改性的颗粒表现出改善的热稳定性和高聚合物含量，PBS达到25 wt%，PBAT达到50 wt%，表明接枝成功，这有望促进与目标可生物降解基体的相容性。这项工作为除PLA之外的可生物降解纳米复合材料的合理设计提供了一种新方法，并有助于可持续高性能材料的开发。
