Morphology, rheology, and mechanical properties of a new nanobiocomposite

Nanobiocomposites are a new class of biodegradable polymer materials with an ultrafine phase dispersion of the order of a few nanometers in a biodegradable polymer matrix that shows very interesting properties often very different from those of conventional filled polymers. In this work the morphology and the rheological and mechanical properties of a new nanobiocomposite made of a biodegradable copolyester based blend with an organomodified montmorillonite have been investigated to evaluate its possible use in several applications. SAXS diffractograms and TEM micrographs show that the in both the adopted processing conditions an hybrid intercalated/exfoliated morphology is observed. Rheological behavior is significantly influenced by the presence of the filler and more important, depends on the type of the applied type of flow. As for the mechanical properties, the elastic modulus strongly increases, while the elongation at break remarkably decreases.