Advancing Renewable Materials by Light and X-ray Scattering

Akpalu, Yvonne A

关键词: Bioplastics;    Renewable polymer;    nanocomposite;    USAXS;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1124658
RP-ID  :  DE-46349-001
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1124658

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

With the ultimate goal to design PHA polymer nanocomposites with tailored properties, we have completed systematic study of the influence of cooling rate [Xie et al, J. Appl. Poly. Sci., 2008] and nanofiller [Xie et al, Polymer 2009] characteristics on model bionanocomposites. Structure-property relationships for a model bionanocomposites system were investigated. These results yielded new fundamental knowledge that supports the discovery of cost-effective manufacturing technologies for a family of promising polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) polyesters, with the potential to replace polyethylene and polypropylene (see Noda letter). Our results show that simple two-phase composite models do not account for the data. Although improvement of the mechanical properties (stiffness/modulus and toughness) must be due to alteration of the matrix by the nanoparticle filler, the observed improvement was not caused by the change of crystallinity or spherulitic morphology. Instead, improvement depends on the molecular weight of the polymer matrix and unknown filler-matrix interactions.