Mechanical and thermal properties of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) blends with starch and starch derivatives

Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is a highly crystalline, biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastic. However, its limited utilization as a commodity plastic is associated to both high cost and very poor mechanical properties. Blending PHB with a natural polymer, such as starch, is one way to improve its properties and to get low price raw materials, though they are not miscible since there are no strong interactions between the hydrophilic starch and the hydrophobic PHB. In this study binary blends of PHB were prepared with natural starch, starch-adipate and grafted starch-urethane derivatives. The PHB blends were characterized in terms of their mechanical and thermal properties. For all blends a decrease of the Young modulus was observed as compared to the pure PHB. However, blends containing natural starches and starch adipate resulted in brittle materials. A significant decrease of both glass transition temperature (Tg) and melting point (Tm) was observed for all formulations. The best results, lower modulus and Tg were obtained with grafted starch-urethane blends using poly(propylene glycol).