Rheology and Physical Characteristics of Synthetic Biodegradable Aliphatic Polymer Blends Dispersed with MWNTs

PLA/PBAT blends and PLA/PBAT/MWNT nanocomposite systems were prepared via a melt mixing process to examine their thermal and rheological properties. To compare the polymer blend/MWNT nanocomposite with a pure polymer/MWNT nanocomposite, PLA/MWNT, PBAT/MWNT, and PLA/PBAT/MWNT nanocomposite systems were prepared. TEM and SEM were used to observe that one phase has better affinity with the MWNT, while the MWNT was found to increase both the thermal properties of the PLA/PBAT blends and rheological properties of the PLA/PBAT/MWNT nanocomposite with distinct shear-thinning behavior due to the addition of the MWNT. An increase in the storage (G') and loss (G') moduli for the PLA/PBT/MWNT nanocomposite was also observed.