Morphology controlled synthesis zinc oxide and reinforcement in polyhydroxyalkanoates composites

Micro‐sized ZnO crystals with different shapes have been successfully synthesized by a simple solvothermal reaction in glycol‐water binary solution or citrate solution. The morphology and size of the ZnO are strongly depended on synthetic environment. The growth of ZnO crystals with tunable shape was controlled by a suppressed crystal growth of the nonpolar plane and polar plane, due to the Tris selectively adsorbed on the different plane facets. Systematic reactions in the presence of different environments were conducted to control the formation of various well‐shaped ZnO crystals. In addition, the porous three‐dimensional microspheres possess larger surface area, which make it improving the mechanical properties of polymer compound. The mechanical properties of ZnO reinforced polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) composites have been tremendously improved. The elongation to break and ultimate tensile strength are increased by 41.2 and 56% compared with the pure PHA, respectively. The Young's modulus of the composites is also further improved. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of ZnO as reinforcement applications in polymer composites. POLYM. COMPOS., 35:1701–1706, 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers