Enzymatic degradation kinetics of poly(butylene succinate) nanocomposites

In this work, poly(butylene succinates) (PBS)/organically modified layered silicates (OMLS) composites were prepared by solution blending. The degradability of PBS, PBS/layered silicates and PBS/OMLS nanocomposites have been investigated using enzymatic degradation method. Effects of layered silicates and OMLS contents on the degradation behavior of PBS were explored. The results reveal that the degradability of the composites was both enhanced by the addition of layered silicates or OMLS as compared to the pristine PBS sample. The calculated data based on the autocatalytic model show that the degradation kinetics of PBS/layered silicates composites is the chain scission process with the following autocatalytic reactions, which is very similar to that of pure PBS matrix. On the other hand, the surface-catalyzed reaction model may be more suitable to describe the degradation behavior of the PBS/OMLS nanocomposite. Moreover, the results show that rate-controlling step of the degradation reaction for PBS/OMLS nanocomposite is more probable to be the desorption step.