Poly(butylene-succinate)-based blends with enhanced oxygen permeability
Nina Kantor-Malujdy, Sandra Skowron, Beata Michalkiewicz, Mirosława El Fray
Abstract
Poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) is a biodegradable polymer produced from renewable raw materials and is widely used in the production of packaging materials . Among important features, oxygen permeability is crucial for “breathing” packaging materials (such as packaging for medical devices sterilized with gaseous ethylene oxide). Recently, poly(butylene succinate-dilinolene succinate) (PBS-DLS) copolymers containing long chains of fatty acids and showing excellent elasticity were synthesized. In this work, bio-based polymer blends of PBS and PBS-DLS copolymer with an aliphatic-aromatic poly(butylene terephthalate-butylene adipate) (PBAT) (Ecoflex) were prepared in order to further improve their oxygen permeability while maintaining mechanical stability . PBS and PBS-DLS copolymer containing 90 wt% of hard segments and 10 wt% of soft segments, respectively, were used for blends preparation with 10 wt% of PBAT. The chemical structure was analyzed using infrared spectroscopy and thermal properties were determined with differential scanning calorimetry . The introduction of PBAT to the blends did not affect their melting temperatures. PBS-based blends were miscible at the molecular level based on single T g value calculated from Fox equation and uniform fracture surface morphology from scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Importantly, the oxygen permeability of PBS-DLS/PBAT blend was comparable to non-biodegradable high-density polyethylene (HDPE) Tyvek used for medical devices packaging.