PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
The escalating environmental crisis posed by single-use plastics underscores the urgent need for sustainable alternatives. This study provides an approach to introduce biodegradable polymer blends by blending synthetic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with natural polymers-corn starch (CS) and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC)-to address this challenge. Through a comprehensive analysis, including of the structure, mechanical strength, water solubility, biodegradability, and thermal properties, we investigated the enhanced performance of PVA-CS and PVA-HPMC blends over conventional polymers. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) findings of pure PVA and its blends were studied, and we found a complete homogeneity between the PVA and both types of natural polymers in the case of a high concentration of PVA, whereas at lower concentration of PVA, some granules of CS and HMPC appear in the SEM. Blending corn starch (CS) with PVA significantly boosts its biodegradability in soil environments, since adding starch of 50 w/w duplicates the rate of PVA biodegradation. Incorporating hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) with PVA not only improves water solubility but also enhances biodegradation rates, as the addition of HPMC increases the biodegradation of pure PVA from 10 to 100% and raises the water solubility from 80 to 100%, highlighting the significant acceleration of the biodegradation process and water solubility caused by HPMC addition, making these blends suitable for a wide range of applications, from packaging and agricultural films to biomedical engineering. The thermal properties of pure PVA and its blends with natural were studied using diffraction scanning calorimetry (DSC). It is found that the glass transition temperature (Tg) increases after adding natural polymers to PVA, referring to an improvement in the molecular weight and intermolecular interactions between blend molecules. Moreover, the amorphous structure of natural polymers makes the melting temperature ™ lessen after adding natural polymer, so the blends require lower temperature to remelt and be recycled again. For the mechanical properties, both types of natural polymer decrease the tensile strength and elongation at break, which overall weakens the mechanical properties of PVA. Our findings offer a promising pathway for the development of environmentally friendly polymers that do not compromise on performance, marking a significant step forward in polymer science\'s contribution to sustainability. This work presents detailed experimental and theoretical insights into novel polymerization methods and the utilization of biological strategies for advanced material design.
摘要：
一次性塑料带来的不断升级的环境危机凸显了对可持续替代品的迫切需求。这项研究提供了一种方法，通过将合成聚乙烯醇（PVA）与天然聚合物-玉米淀粉（CS）和羟丙基甲基纤维素（HPMC）混合来引入可生物降解的聚合物混合物，以应对这一挑战。通过综合分析,包括结构，机械强度,水溶性，生物降解性，和热性能，我们研究了PVA-CS和PVA-HPMC共混物相对于常规聚合物的增强性能。研究了纯PVA及其共混物的扫描电子显微镜（SEM）发现，我们发现，在高浓度PVA的情况下，PVA和两种类型的天然聚合物之间完全均匀，而在较低浓度的PVA下，SEM中出现CS和HMPC的一些颗粒。将玉米淀粉（CS）与PVA混合显着提高了其在土壤环境中的生物降解性，因为添加50w/w的淀粉重复了PVA生物降解的速率。将羟丙基甲基纤维素（HPMC）与PVA结合不仅提高了水溶性，而且提高了生物降解率，由于HPMC的添加将纯PVA的生物降解从10％提高到100％，并将水溶性从80％提高到100％，强调了添加HPMC引起的生物降解过程和水溶性的显着加速，使这些混合物适合广泛的应用，从包装和农用薄膜到生物医学工程。使用衍射扫描量热法（DSC）研究了纯PVA及其与天然的共混物的热性能。发现在PVA中添加天然聚合物后，玻璃化转变温度（Tg）增加，是指分子量和共混分子之间的分子间相互作用的改进。此外，天然聚合物的无定形结构使加入天然聚合物后的熔化温度降低，因此，共混物需要较低的温度才能重新熔融并再次回收。对于机械性能，两种类型的天然聚合物都会降低拉伸强度和断裂伸长率，这总体上削弱了PVA的力学性能。我们的发现提供了一个有希望的途径，为开发环境友好的聚合物，不影响性能，标志着聚合物科学对可持续性的贡献向前迈出了重要的一步。这项工作提供了详细的实验和理论见解，以新颖的聚合方法和利用生物策略进行先进的材料设计。
