Reinforcing a Thermoplastic Starch/Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) Composite Foam with Polyethylene Glycol under Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Chih-Jen Chang; Jayashree Chandrasekar; Chia-Jung Cho; Manikandan Venkatesan; Pin-Shu Huang; Ching-Wei Yang; Hsin-Ta Wang; Chang-Ming Wong; Chi-Ching Kuo

doi:10.3390/polym15010129

Reinforcing a Thermoplastic Starch/Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) Composite Foam with Polyethylene Glycol under Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Polymers (Basel). 2022 Dec 28;15(1):129. doi: 10.3390/polym15010129.

Authors

Chih-Jen Chang¹, Jayashree Chandrasekar¹, Chia-Jung Cho², Manikandan Venkatesan¹, Pin-Shu Huang², Ching-Wei Yang¹, Hsin-Ta Wang¹, Chang-Ming Wong³, Chi-Ching Kuo¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Research and Development Center of Smart Textile Technology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan.
² Institute of Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung 84001, Taiwan.
³ CoreTech System Co., Ltd., Hsinchu 30265, Taiwan.

Abstract

Biodegradable foams are a potential substitute for most fossil-fuel-derived polymer foams currently used in the cushion furniture-making industry. Thermoplastic starch (TPS) and poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) are biodegradable polymers, although their poor compatibility does not support the foam-forming process. In this study, we investigated the effect of polyethylene glycol (PEG) with or without silane A (SA) on the foam density, cell structure and tensile properties of TPS/PBAT blends. The challenges in foam forming were explored through various temperature and pressure values under supercritical carbon dioxide (CO₂) conditions. The obtained experimental results indicate that PEG and SA act as a plasticizer and compatibilizer, respectively. The 50% (TPS with SA + PEG)/50% PBAT blends generally produce foams that have a lower foam density and better cell structure than those of 50% (TPS with PEG)/50% PBAT blends. The tensile property of each 50% (TPS with SA + PEG)/50% PBAT foam is generally better than that of each 50% (TPS with PEG)/50% PBAT foam.

Keywords: foam; poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate); polyethylene glycol; starch; supercritical CO2.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by (1) the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Contracts: MOST 109-2221-E-027-114-MY3, MOST 110-2222-E-214-001-MY2, MOST 110-2622-E-027-019) and (2) I-Shou University (Contract: ISU 111-S-01). The authors also thank the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC-108-2221-E-182A-002) for financially supporting this research.