Au cours des dernières décennies, l’utilisation de polymères biodégradables a connu un regain d’intérêt pour des applications agricoles. Dans cette étude, nous nous concentrons sur le développement de textiles biodégradables destinés à la protection anti-insecte des cultures. Actuellement, ces textiles doivent être collectés par des entreprises après la saison agricole et entraîne un coût non négligeable pour l’utilisateur. Une alternative serait d’avoir des agro-textiles qui pourraient être collectés par l’utilisateur et minéralisés après quelques mois. Les polymères biodégradables pourraient répondre à ces objectifs. Dans cette étude, nous nous sommes concentrés sur le poly(butylene succinate) un polymère biodégradable et biosourcé. Le PBS a été synthétisé sur un pilote de polycondensation. Néanmoins, le PBS issu de cette synthèse présente de faibles propriétés rhéologiques. La structure du PBS a donc été modifiée par l’incorporation de branchements ou d’allongeurs de chaines. Les propriétés mécaniques ont également été optimisées via la synthèse de systèmes PBS/PLA transréagits et de PBS nanocomposites. Ces PBS modifiés ont été testés au filage. Finalement un fil de PBS avec 0,5% de silice sphérique a été produit à plus grande échelle et un textile a été fabriqué. Le vieillissement de ces fils PBS a été étudié et la conservation des propriétés mécaniques durant l’utilisation du fil en extérieur a été validée. Enfin, une dernière approche plus exploratoire a été testée. Elle consiste en la modification du PBS par des interactions supramoléculaires réversibles en température. / In the last decade, biodegradable polymers have gained significant interest for agricultural applications. Here we focus on the development of biodegradable textiles for insect-proof nets. Currently these textiles must be collected by specialized companies after the growing season and generate disposal cost. An ideal agrotextile would be collected by the user at the end of the growing season, and undergo full mineralization within few months. These requirements can be achieved by using biodegradable polymers. In this study, poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), a biobased and biodegradable polymer was studied. PBS was synthesized by polycondensation on a pilot plant reactor. Because of low rheological properties of the synthesized polyester, the chemical structure of PBS was modified by several approaches like chain extension or branching. The mechanical properties were tuned with the synthesis of PBS/PLA transreacted systems and PBS nanocomposites. These modified PBS were tested upon fiber spinning. Finally a PBS yarn with 0,5% spherical silica was produced at higher scale and a textile was done. Ageing of the PBS yarns was also studied and the conservation of the mechanical properties during use of the textile was validated. Lastly a more exploratory approach was tested. It is synthesis of modified PBS by supramolecular interactions, which are reversible upon temperature.

Les travaux de recherche réalisés, dans le cadre de la préparation de cette thèse consiste à préparer une nouvelle famille de polyesters ionomères furanique incorporant dans leur structure d’une part des unités aromatiques sulfonées et d’autre part des unités pyridiniques. Ce Choix est justifié principalement par les trois considérations suivantes : (i) la présence d’unités sulfonées dans la structure du poly (téréphtalate d’éthylène) confère à ce genre de polymère des propriétés physico-chimiques spécifiques favorisant son utilisation dans divers secteurs industriels dont principalement celui du détergents et celui des textiles, (ii) la présence d’unité furanique pourrait conduire à la biodégradabilité des matériaux dont on envisage leur préparation, (iii) la présence d’unités pyridiniques confère à ce genre de polymère des propriétés optoélectroniques (conductivité électrique, photoconductivité et propriétés luminescentes) permettant son utilisation dans diverses applications dont principalement le secteur spatiale et aéronautique. / The research conducted for the preparation of this thesis is devoted to develop a new family of furanic copolyesters incorporating in their structure sulfonated and pyridinic units. This choice is justified mainly by the following three considerations: (i) the presence of sulfonated units in the poly(ethylene-terephthalate) structure gives to this kind of polymer a specific physicochemical properties favoring its use in various industrial sectors in a detergents and in textiles domains (ii) the presence of furanic unit could lead to the biodegradability of these materials (iii) Pyridinic units confer to these polymers an optoelectronic properties (electrical conductivity, photoconductivity and luminescent properties) favoring its use in various applications , in the space and aeronautics fields.

Product development can be taxing for the environment. When it comes to hardware products then a lot ofthe materials generally involved are based on finite resources such as fossil fuels. As the most commonlyused materials are rarely biodegradable, they often end up in landfills where they end up being harmfulboth to the environment and its inhabitants for a very long time. During recent years some companieshave started combating this through getting involved in the development and implementation of moresustainable alternatives. One of these companies trying to implement more sustainable materials isInteresting Times Gang, who now also wishes to develop new products by using mycelium - theunderground network of threads produced by fungi. This as mycelium poses a lot of sustainable propertiessuch as biodegradability, a high degree of moldability as well as being a cultivated resource rather thanbeing synthetic. This project serves to investigate what kind of product types are fitting for myceliumcomposites per request from ITG, as well as what kind of surface treatments are possible and fitting tomake the material more desirable. This with the intention of increasing awareness about the material withthe hopes of promoting it to a larger audience, enabling a transition towards more sustainable materialalternatives in the process. With the information gathered through research the project resulted in a sidetable that was designed and manufactured as a 1:1 scale prototype to showcase the possibilities of thematerial. This was done through a material driven design process which was divided into four steps:Understanding the material, Creating materials experience vision, Manifesting materials experience visionand Designing product concepts. Each phase included its own methods respectively and some of themethods include literature review, material testing, benchmarking, user testing, digital prototyping andmanufacturing to name a few. The project is a master thesis for the Industrial Design Engineeringprogramme at Luleå University of Technology performed during the spring of 2023.

The relatively new and still growing field of 3D-printing has opened up the possibilities to manufacture patient-specific medical devices with high geometrical accuracy in a precise and quick manner. Additionally, biocompatible materials are a demand for all medical applications while biodegradability is of importance when developing scaffolds for tissue growth for instance. With respect to this, this project consisted of developing biocompatible and bioresorbable polymer blend and composite filaments, for fused deposition modeling (FDM) printing. Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL) were used as supporting polymer matrix while hydroxyapatite (HA), a calcium phosphate with similar chemical composition to the mineral phase of human bone, was added to the composites to enhance the biological activity. PLA and PCL content was varied between 90–70 wt% and 10-30 wt%, respectively, while the HA content was 15 wt% in all composites. All materials were characterized in terms of mechanical properties, thermal stability, chemical composition and morphology. An accelerated degradation study of the materials was also executed in order to investigate the degradation behavior as well as the impact of the degradation on the above mentioned properties. The results showed that all processed materials exhibited higher mechanical properties compared to the human trabecular bone, even after degradation with a mass loss of around 30% for the polymer blends and 60% for the composites. It was also apparent that the mineral accelerated the polymer degradation significantly, which can be advantageous for injuries with faster healing time, requiring only support for a shorter time period.