Polyethylene/Bacterial-Cellulose Biocomposite Synthesized via In Situ Polymerization with Zirconocene/MMAO Catalyst
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4186/ej.2019.23.3.15Abstract
In this study, the polyethylene filled celluloses regarded as biocomposites was produced via in situ polymerization with zirconocene/MMAO catalyst. Three types of celluloses including microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), bacterial cellulose prepared from pineapple shell extract (BCP), and bacterial cellulose prepared from coconut (BCC) were used as fillers and also catalytic support in the polymerization system. It was found that the presence of cellulose fillers slightly decreased catalytic activity of the polymerization system, but it was still higher compared with that of other natural fillers such as coir dust. This is caused by the lower impurity of cellulose. The MCC provided the highest catalytic activity among all cellulose fillers. The obtained biocomposites were characterized with different techniques including scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). It was observed that all obtained biocomposites exhibited good morphology compared with the neat polyethylene. Thermal stability of the polymers was improved with the cellulose fillers.
Downloads
Downloads
Authors who publish with Engineering Journal agree to transfer all copyright rights in and to the above work to the Engineering Journal (EJ)'s Editorial Board so that EJ's Editorial Board shall have the right to publish the work for nonprofit use in any media or form. In return, authors retain: (1) all proprietary rights other than copyright; (2) re-use of all or part of the above paper in their other work; (3) right to reproduce or authorize others to reproduce the above paper for authors' personal use or for company use if the source and EJ's copyright notice is indicated, and if the reproduction is not made for the purpose of sale.