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Structure and Water Absorption of Starch and Polyethylene-Octene Elastomer Composites

Research Institute of Light Chemical Engineering South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, PR China

Xiong Fu

Research Institute of Light Chemical Engineering South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, PR China

Liansheng Yang

Research Institute of Light Chemical Engineering South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, PR China

Xudong Chen

School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China

Four modified starches, including gelatinized starch (GS), crosslinked starch (CS), oxidized starch (OS) and esterified starch (ES), were blended with polyethylene-octene elastomer (POE) at 20 wt% starch content. The graft copolymer POE-g-MAH acted as a compatibilizer where 5 wt% was added to POE and various starch blends. The crosslinked starch was blended with POE in different proportions and conditioned at various relative humidities (RH), 11%, 32%, 43%, 75% and 100%, respectively until equilibrium to study the water absorption of POE/starch blends. Although different types of starch were used, the mechanical properties of each POE/starch blend were not significantly different. The compatibilizer had an obvious influence on the morphology and mechanical properties of each POE/starch blend. The starch dispersed in POE matrix better and the interfacial adhesion between starch and POE phase improved after adding the POE-g-MAH, also the tensile strength of POE/starch blends increased. With increasing starch content, both the tensile strength and elongation at break of POE/CS blends decreased. The water uptake of POE/CS blends increased with increasing time and starch content. The POE/CS blends without compatibilizer had higher water uptakes than those samples with compatibilizer. After equilibrium at different RH, the tensile strength of POE/CS blends decreased as RH increased, but the elongation at break increased with increasing RH.

Key Words: polyethylene-octene elastomer • starch • composites • morphology • water absorption.

This version was published on March 1, 2008

Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites, Vol. 27, No. 4, 375-391 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0731684407084118


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