Development of Polyhydroxybutyrate-Based Packaging Films and Methods to Their Ultrasonic Welding

Viktoriia Talaniuk; Marcin Godzierz; Alina Vashchuk; Maksym Iurhenko; Paweł Chaber; Wanda Sikorska; Anastasiia Kobyliukh; Valeriy Demchenko; Sergiy Rogalsky; Urszula Szeluga; Grażyna Adamus

doi:10.3390/ma16206617

Development of Polyhydroxybutyrate-Based Packaging Films and Methods to Their Ultrasonic Welding

Materials (Basel). 2023 Oct 10;16(20):6617. doi: 10.3390/ma16206617.

Authors

Viktoriia Talaniuk^{1

2

3}, Marcin Godzierz^{1

3}, Alina Vashchuk², Maksym Iurhenko^{2

3}, Paweł Chaber^{1

3}, Wanda Sikorska^{1

3}, Anastasiia Kobyliukh^{1

3}, Valeriy Demchenko², Sergiy Rogalsky⁴, Urszula Szeluga^{1

3}, Grażyna Adamus^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials, Polish Academy of Sciences, M. Curie-Sklodowska Str. 34, 41-819 Zabrze, Poland.
² E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 11. Kazymyr Malevych St., 03680 Kyiv, Ukraine.
³ International Polish-Ukrainian Research Laboratory ADPOLCOM, 41-800 Zabrze, Poland.
⁴ Laboratory of Modification Polymers, V.P. Kukhar Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry and Petrochemistry of NAS of Ukraine, 50, Kharkivskie Schose, 02160 Kyiv, Ukraine.

Abstract

This study developed a technical task associated with the formation of welded joints based on biodegradable polymers and their subsequent physicochemical characterization. The primary objective was to establish the effect of the welding process and modification of natural poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) with N,N-dibutylundecenoylamide (DBUA) as a plasticizing agent on the structure and properties of PHB-based biopolymer materials as well as the process and structure of welded joints formation using ultrasonic welding technique. The weldability of biodegradable layers based on PHB and PHB/DBUA mixture was ultrasonically welded and optimized using a standard Branson press-type installation. The effect of the DBUA plasticizer and welding process on the structure of PHB-based biodegradable material was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermomechanical analysis. The results confirmed that the DBUA acted as an effective plasticizer of PHB, contributing to lower crystallinity of the PHB/DBUA mixture (63%) in relation to the crystallinity degree of pure PHB film (69%). Ultrasonic welding resulted in an additional increase (approximately 8.5%) in the degree of crystallinity in the PHB/DBUA in relation to the initial PHB/DBUA mixture. The significant shift toward lower temperatures of the crystallization and melting peaks of PHB modified with DBUA were observed using DSC concerning pure PHB. The melt crystallization process of PHB was affected by welding treatment, and a shift toward higher temperature was observed compared with the unwelded PHB/DBUA sample. The butt-welded joints of biodegradable PHB/DBUA materials made using the ultrasonic method tested for tensile strength have damaged the area immediately outside the joining surface.

Keywords: biopolymers; poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), N,N-dibutylundecenoylamide plasticizer; ultrasonic welded joints.

Grants and funding

This work was partially realized in the frame of the project “Processing and joining of new functionalized biopolymer materials” between the Polish Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (2022–2024), Polish-Ukrainian Laboratory ADPOLCOM “Formation and characterization of advanced polymers and polymer composites” localized in Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials Polish Academy of Sciences, as well as in the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry and E.O. Paton Welding Institute of National Academy of Science of Ukraine. This work was also partially realized in the frame of the NRFU project 2022.01/0019 “ Development of antimicrobial packaging biopolymer materials and technology of their welding for long-term food storage” This work was also partially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 872152, project GREEN-MAP, an international project co-financed by the program of the Minister of Science and Higher Education entitled “PMW” in the years 2020–2023; contract No. 5092/H2020/2020/2.