Thermoplastic Starch with Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) Blends Foamed by Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Chih Jen Chang, Manikandan Venkatesan, Chia Jung Cho*, Ping Yu Chung, Jayashree Chandrasekar, Chen Hung Lee*, Hsin Ta Wang, Chang Ming Wong, Chi Ching Kuo*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Starch-based biodegradable foams with a high starch content are developed using industrial starch as the base material and supercritical CO2 as blowing or foaming agents. The superior cushioning properties of these foams can lead to competitiveness in the market. Despite this, a weak melting strength property of starch is not sufficient to hold the foaming agents within it. Due to the rapid diffusion of foaming gas into the environment, it is difficult for starch to maintain pore structure in starch foams. Therefore, producing starch foam by using supercritical CO2 foaming gas faces severe challenges. To overcome this, we have synthesized thermoplastic starch (TPS) by dispersing starch into water or glycerin. Consecutively, the TPS surface was modified by compatibilizer silane A (SA) to improve the dispersion with poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) to become (TPS with SA)/PBAT composite foam. Furthermore, the foam-forming process was optimized by varying the ratios of TPS and PBAT under different forming temperatures of 85C to 105C, and two different pressures, 17 Mpa and 23 Mpa were studied in detail. The obtained results indicate that the SA surface modification on TPS can influence the great compatibility with PBAT blended foams (foam density: 0.16 g/cm3 ); whereas unmodified TPS and PBAT (foam density: 0.349 g/cm3 ) exhibit high foam density, rigid foam structure, and poor tensile properties. In addition, we have found that the 80% TPS/20% PBAT foam can be achieved with good flexible properties. Because of this flexibility, lightweight and environment-friendly nature, we have the opportunity to resolve the strong demands from the packing market.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1952
JournalPolymers
Volume14
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 01 05 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • carbon dioxide
  • foam
  • silane
  • thermoplastic starch

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