Evaluation of the production of PHBV/cellulose nanowhiskers nanocomposites in a thermokinetic mixer

• Grant number: 19/15888-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2019
• End date: November 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Ana Paula Lemes
• Grantee: Vitor Siqueira de Faria
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia (ICT). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São José dos Campos. São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Nowadays, the biodegradable polymers are a recurrent object of study, because of the concern about the environment. Among those, the poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate), or PHBV, stands out, belonging to the PHA family. The PHBV holds a great potential of application in packaging industry and in the medical field, in the production of scaffolds for tissue regeneration. However, the PHBV still has some limitations for these applications, such as low shear strength and a high cost. Thus, it's important and interesting the production of PHBV nanocomposites since the addition of a nanofiller may cause an increase of the polymer shear strength and/or entail changes in properties that increases the potential of application in a determined area. The cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) can be used as a reinforcement for the PHBV matrix, since it has desirable mechanical properties and meets the requirement of being, such as the PHBV, obtained from a renewable resource, as well being biocompatible and biodegradable. Nevertheless, because of a hydrophilic nature of the CNC, it is desirable the use of a compatibilizer agent to obtain a good adhesion between nanofiller/matrix. That way, nanocomposites of PHBV-g-MA and PHBV reinforced with CNC will be produced with 1, 3 and 5% weight concentrations of the CNC in a thermokinetic mixer. The composite specimen will be made by hot pressing and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), microtomography test, mechanical tensile strength test, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and in-vitro cell proliferation.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DE FREITAS, AMANDA DE SOUSA MARTINEZ; DA SILVA, ANA PAULA BERNARDO; MONTAGNA, LARISSA STIEVEN; NOGUEIRA, IURY ARAUJO; CARVALHO, NATHAN KEVIN; DE FARIA, VITOR SIQUEIRA; DOS SANTOS, NATALI BOMFIM; LEMES, ANA PAULA. Thermoplastic starch nanocomposites: sources, production and applications - a review. JOURNAL OF BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE-POLYMER EDITION, DEC 2021. (19/15976-0, 19/15888-3, 19/15957-5)