Green Processes for Green Products: The Use of Supercritical CO₂ as Green Solvent for Compatibilized Polymer Blends.

ABSTRACT: Polycaprolactone-g-glycidyl methacrylate (PCL-g-GMA), a reactive interfacial agent for PCL-starch blends, is synthesized using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂) as reaction medium and relatively high molecular weight PCL (M_w = 50,000). Higher GMA and radical initiator intakes lead to higher functionalization degrees (FD) for PCL-g-GMA samples. A mathematical model is developed to describe the correlation between monomer and initiator intake and FD values. The model shows an excellent R²-value (0.978), which implies a good fit of the experimental data. Comparison of this model with a similar one for the reaction in the melt clearly indicates a better reaction efficiency in scCO₂. Furthermore, GPC results show that less degradation occurred for sampl

SUBMITTER: Iqbal M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6401873 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature