Fully biobased biodegradable elastomeric polymer blends based on PHAs

Abstract

This study examines binary blends of three types of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs)—poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBH), and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB4HB)—with a focus on their rheological, thermal, and mechanical behavior. The blends exhibit partial miscibility in both the melt and solid states. Glass transition analysis revealed that semicrystalline/amorphous PHA combinations are fully miscible (single Tg) at amorphous PHA contents below 30 wt%. Above this threshold, a two-phase morphology develops, consisting of crystalline spherulites embedded in an amorphous matrix. When the amorphous PHA content reached ≥30 wt%, the blends could be oriented by stretching, yielding materials that display thermoplastic elastomer (TPE)-like behavior without chemical modification of the base polymers. Thermal and mechanical characterization, supported by X-ray diffraction of samples before and after orientation, confirmed that the elastomeric properties originate from the multiphase architecture formed by crystalline and amorphous domains interconnected through a miscible amorphous fraction.