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Sustainable Biocomposites from Poly(butylene succinate) and Apple Pomace: A Study on Compatibilization Performance

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Abstract

Sustainable biocomposites from biobased poly(butylene succinate) (BioPBS) and apple pomace (AP) were fabricated using melt extrusion followed by injection molding processing. When used as a filler, the AP can be diverted from waste into value added products. For the manufacture of the composites, in situ manufactured Bio-PBS grafted maleic anhydride (MA-g-BioPBS) was used in order to increase interfacial adhesion between the two phases. Thus, comparisons were made between compatibilized and uncompatibilized composites. The mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties, morphology, as well as the crystallization phenomena were investigated for both composites at different filler contents (20, 30, 40, and 50 wt%). Overall, the tensile and flexural moduli and the flexural strength were significantly enhanced with respect to the neat polymer, with optimal values achieved with 40 wt% of AP and 3 wt% of MA-g-BioPBS. Although the tensile stress was drastically reduced in uncompatibilized composites, it was recovered with the addition of the coupling agent. Furthermore, it was interesting to find out an increase of ~ 150% in the impact strength in uncompatibilized samples with respect to the neat polymer, confirming the ability of AP to act as reinforcing filler. Increases were found in the degree of crystallinity as well as with the melting temperature with the presence of MA-g-BioPBS.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to: (i) the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA, Canada)—University of Guelph, Bioeconomy Industrial Uses Research Program Theme Project # 030177; and (ii) the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC, Canada), Canada Discovery Grants Project # 400320 for their financial support to carry out this research. A special thanks to Martin’s Family Fruit Farm Ltd. (1420 Lobsinger Line, Waterloo, Ontario) for donating apple pomace samples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering, Thornbrough Building, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2M7, Canada

    Maisyn C. Picard, Manjusri Misra & Amar K. Mohanty

  2. Bioproducts Discovery and Development Centre, Department of Plant Agriculture, Crop Science Building, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, ON, N1G 2M7, Canada

    Maisyn C. Picard, Arturo Rodriguez-Uribe, Manjusri Misra & Amar K. Mohanty

  3. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, 1 Stone Road West, Guelph, ON, N1G 4Y2, Canada

    Mahendra Thimmanagari

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  1. Maisyn C. Picard
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Picard, M.C., Rodriguez-Uribe, A., Thimmanagari, M. et al. Sustainable Biocomposites from Poly(butylene succinate) and Apple Pomace: A Study on Compatibilization Performance. Waste Biomass Valor 11, 3775–3787 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-019-00591-3

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