PHB/Cellulose Fibers Based Materials: Physical, Mechanical and Barrier Properties

In the latest years, researchers have been working to reduce the dependence on petroleum based fuels and products due to the increase in environmental consciousness. This leads to investigate the environmentally friendly sustainable materials in order to replace the existing ones. One of these polymeric materials is poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) which is a semi-crystalline, linear polymer belonging to the class of polyhydroxyalkanoates. It is fully biodegradable and biocompatible, and produced from renewable resources. Although having promising properties, PHB is unstable during processing at elevated temperatures causing thermal degradation that reduces its mechanical performance. The purpose of the present study was to develop and characterize new composite materials based on PHB and different percentage of cellulose fibers (from 2% to 10%), in order to improve PHB's physical mechanical behavior. In this respect, a series of physical-mechanical analyses (melt processing, optical properties, differential scanning calorimetry, water vapor permeability, etc.) were performed. The results obtained during this study show the most appropriate composition of the tested mixtures and demonstrate that the polymeric material based on PHB and cellulose fibers have good physical - mechanical characteristics, being suitable for packaging industry.