Biobased polymers are a critical research topic as they may serve as replacement to traditional unsustainable petro-chemical polymers. It is vital to widen its range of applications by improving its physical and mechanical properties via light weighting and strength improvements. Light weighting can be accomplished by introducing foam morphology to the material while mechanical strength improvements can be achieved by inserting stiff filler material to the base polymer to form a composite. This study explores the physical, mechanical, thermal, rheological and morphological properties of blends, foams and composites between biobased PLA and PHBV matrix polymers and biobased chitin nanowhisker filler. It was found that foams produced from PLA and PHBV blends exhibits refined cellular morphology which leads to light weighting and good strength preservation while chitin nanowhiskers was determined to be a very effective filler for mechanical property improvements in both solid and porous materials.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/42843 |
| Date | 22 November 2013 |
| Creators | Guan, Qi |
| Contributors | Naguib, Hani E. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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