The plastic waste problem has recently attracted unprecedented attention globally. To reduce the adverse eff ects on environments, biodegradable polymers have been studied to solve the problems. Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) is one of the common biodegradable plastics used on its own or blended with natural polymers because of its excellent properties after blending. However, PCL and natural polymers are difficult to blend due to the polymers' properties. Grafted polymerization of maleic anhydride and dibenzoyl peroxide (DBPO) with PCL is one of the improvements used for blending immiscible polymers. In this study, we first focused on the effects of three factors (stirring time, maleic anhydride (MA) amount and benzoyl peroxide amount) on the grafting ratio with a maximum value of 4.16% when applying 3.000 g MA and 1.120 g DBPO to 3.375 g PCL with a stirring time of 18 h. After that, the grafting condition was studied based on the kinetic thermal decomposition and activation energy by the Coats-Redfern method. The optimal fitting model was confirmed by the determination coefficient of nearly 1 to explain the contracting volume mechanism of synthesized PCL-g-MA. Consequently, grafted MA hydrophilically augmented PCL as the reduced contact angle of water suggests, facilitating the creation of a plastic-biomaterial composite.
Keywords: Coats–Redfern equation; grafting; maleic anhydride; poly(ε-caprolactone); thermal stability.