A FULLY BIODEGRADABLE PLA/PBS COMPOSITE REINFORCED WITH WOOD FLOUR

The development rate of the biodegradable polymers market has been rising year by year, mainly due to the increasing demand of replacing non-biodegradable polymer plastics with their environment-friendly representatives. In spite of this, the contribution of biodegradable polymers on the overall plastic market is still marginal. Besides the price, their poor mechanical properties, which may not stand up to the requirements that plastics are expected to meet, are responsible for that. That is why, many biodegradable polymer blends, modified with different fillers, are under investigation. In this work, a PLA/PBS system was reinforced with wood flour and additionally modified with a chain extender. As a result, macromolecular chain extension was observed, as well as an improvement in tensile strength, whereas elasticity remained at the same level as that for the wood flour filled composite. The water absorption rate increased as a function of filler concentration. Contrary to rheological and mechanical test results, no significant influence of the chain extender was observed.