Book of abstracts version 5

Book of abstracts SPOC 2018
Synthesis of Poly(Glycerol Succinate – Co – Maleate) PLA enhancer 2
Author
oly(Glycerol Wim van der Pluijm Succinate – Co – Maleate) PLA enhancer 2
Academy of Technology for Health and Environment
Avans Hogeschool, Breda
Abstract
Using fossil fuels to create plastics bring many disadvantages, both the production and products created are harmful to
the environment. Because of this many replacements are currently being explored. One of such replacements is the use of
bio-degradable polymers, their range of use however is very limited because of their physical properties. Luckily it is
possible to enhance the properties of these polymers to increase their range of use by adding another polymer. The goal
of this study is to thoroughly analyse the synthesis of the PLA enhan cer: PGSMA (Poly(Glycerol Succinate-Co-Maleate) [1]
so that in further research the accent can be set on actually adding it to PLA and no difficulties/hurdles will be found at
the synthesis. PGSMA is a polyester made out of glycerol, succinic acid and maleic anhydride where the double bond of
maleic anhydride makes it addable to PLA through reactive extrusion [2]. The synthesis will be done under N 2 and
mechanical stirring at different temperatures, replacements for maleic anhydride will also be tested (see Figure 1).
Heating the mixture at 180°C will create a three dimensional product and heating at 150 °C will create a linear product.
The maleic anhydride replacements are: fumaric acid and itaconic acid (better for environment). During the synthesis
samples will be taken and analysed with FTIR, DSC & GPC to determine the progress and speed of the reaction. At 180 °C
this is to determine the gel point so that the synthesis will not go beyond that (the product becomes unusable).
Keywords: PLA enhancer, PGSMA, Reactive extrusion, gel point.
Table of content
Figure 1: Overview study.
[1] Valerio, Oscar, et al. “Sustainable Biobased Blends of Poly(Lactic Acid) (PLA) and Poly(Glycerol Succinate-Co-Maleate)
(PGSMA) with Balanced Performance Prepared by Dynamic Vulcanization.” RSC Advances, vol. 7, no. 61, 2017, pp. 38594 –
38603., doi:10.1039/c7ra06612k.
[2] Valerio, Oscar, et al. “Synthesis of Glycerol-Based Biopolyesters as Toughness Enhancers for Polylactic Acid Bioplastic
through Reactive Extrusion.” ACS Omega, vol. 1, no. 6, 2016, pp. 1284–1295., doi:10.1021/acsomega.6b00325.
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