Effect of Agave Americana Fiber Content on Properties of Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-Co-3-Hydroxyhexanoate) Biocomposites

EasyChair Preprint no. 8428

Abstract

Biodegradable biopolymers play a key role in substituting the synthetic polymers derived from fossil oil. One of them is the poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx) that belongs to the polyhydroxyalcanoates family. PHBHHx exhibits good properties in terms of thermo-processability, ductility, biodegradability and gas barrier properties. However, the high hydrophobicity, lack of advanced functionality and high cost of PHBHHx coupled with a slow crystallization have restricted further expansion of its utilization. The use of cellulosic fibers is now becoming essential in biocomposites not only in terms of performance, but also to preserve the biodegradability character of the materials. In this paper, the effect of Agave Americana fibers (AAF) content, i.e., 10, 20 and 30 wt % on the thermal stability and viscoelastic properties of PHBHHx biocomposites was investigated. The study shows that the incorporation of AAF to PHBHHx displays a slight decrease in thermal stability but nearly no change between the different compositions. Storage modulus and complex viscosity of biocomposite samples are significantly improved, however more pronounced at 30 wt% of AAF.

Keyphrases: Agave Americana fibers, Biocomposites, Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate), Thermogravimetric analysis, viscoelastic properties

@Booklet{EasyChair:8428,
  author = {Mustapha Kaci and Celia Idres and Nadjet Dehouche and Carole Lainé and Stéphane Bruzaud},
  title = {Effect of Agave Americana Fiber Content on Properties  of  Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate-Co-3-Hydroxyhexanoate) Biocomposites},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 8428},

  year = {EasyChair, 2022}}