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Fabrication of hydrophobic biocomposite by combining cellulosic fibers with polyhydroxyalkanoate

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Abstract

Due to increasing environmental concerns related to bio-persistence of petroleum based polymers, and the fact that most biopolymers such as polysaccharides or bio-polyesters are hydrophilic, hydrophobic biodegradable composite consisting of natural cellulosic fiber matrix and bio-derived polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) were fabricated by dip-coating, in which PHA was grafted using maleic anhydride to improve its compatibility with cellulosic fibers. It was found that there was a balance between the hydrophobicity of the complex and the grafting degree of MA on PHA. The composite film reached the highest contact angle of 130° at the grafting degree of 0.05% and the ratio of biopolymer to fibers 15%, and it was found to withstand the time aging without loss of hydrophobicity. The tensile strength of the composite film was greatly improved as a result of the introduction of PHA. This hydrophobic composite can potentially be used as a substitute for synthetic polymer/cellulose composite materials.

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Abbreviations

PHA:

Polyhydroxyalkanoate

PHA-g-MA:

Polyhydroxyalkanoate grafted maleic anhydride

PLA:

Polylactic acid

ATRP:

Atom transfer radical polymerization

BPO:

Benzoyl peroxide

MA:

Maleic anhydride

ISO:

International Organization for Standardization

ATR-FTIR:

Attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

SEM:

Scanning electron microscope

CA:

Contact angle

ASTM:

American Society of Testing Materials

TGA:

Thermogravimetric analyzer

CF:

Cotton fiber

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering (2016C14), the Special Project on the Integration of Industry, Education and Research of Guangdong Province (2013A090100013), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2015ZM174) and Open Funded Projects of Jiangsu Province Key Lab of Pulp and Paper Science and Technology (201519).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pulp and Paper Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Chen Zhao, Junrong Li, Beihai He & Lihong Zhao

  2. National Engineering Research Center of Papermaking and Pollution Control, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Junrong Li & Beihai He

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  1. Chen Zhao
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  2. Junrong Li
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  3. Beihai He
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  4. Lihong Zhao
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Correspondence to Lihong Zhao.

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Zhao, C., Li, J., He, B. et al. Fabrication of hydrophobic biocomposite by combining cellulosic fibers with polyhydroxyalkanoate. Cellulose 24, 2265–2274 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1235-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-017-1235-8

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