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Polymer Congress 2018 Polymer Sciences
ISSN: 2471-9935 Page 81
June 04-05, 2018
London, UK
4th Edition of International Conference on
Polymer Science and
Technology
Polymer foams, especially those based on biodegradable
polymers, are in high demand because they remain the best
solution to durably reduce the environmental footprint. During
the foaming process of polymers, the gas dissolution is one of
the key physicochemical parameter that determines the foam
quality. In this work, the effect of nitrogen dissolution in a bio-
based polybutylene succinate (PBS) foamed by microcellular
injection molding has been investigated. Low molecular
weight PBS (LM-PBS) was melt-blended as additives to
linear PBS (L-PBS) and branched PBS (B-PBS). LM-PBS was
first produced by a hydrolysis reaction of a commercial PBS
at 80°C (with kinetic monitoring of the molecular weight)
prior melt-blending by twin-screw extrusion into commercial
PBS. Foam morphologies were subsequently characterized
by scanning electron microscopy coupled to image analysis
and the effect of the LM-PBS on rheological properties has
been also identified in order to establish correlations between
cell morphology (size and density) and shear/elongational
viscosities. Interestingly, our results showed smaller cell size
and higher cell density for the blends containing the LM-PBS.
Lower viscosities are observed and our trends are in apparent
contradiction with classical results in field of polymer foaming.
In conclusion, better cell structure can be achieved despite
lower viscosities. The impact of N2 solubility on cell nucleation
is finally discussed based on various experiments. The as-
developed approach consequently represents an elegant way
to tune and optimize foam morphologies by microcellular
injection molding.
Bio-based poly (butylene succinate) foaming by microcellular
injection-molding: effect of N2 solubility on cell morphology
Nazim Ykhlef 1 and Eric Lafranche2
1IMT Lille Douai, France
2Universite de Lille, Lille, France
Polym Sci 2018, Volume 4
DOI: 10.4172/2471-9935-C2-012