The Effect of Nanoboron Nitride on Some Properties of Biopolymer Nanocomposites with Cellulose Nanofibrils and Nanoclays

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of nanoboron nitride (BN) as nano-fire retardant on some properties of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) biopolymer nanocomposites reinforced with cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and nanoclays (NC). BN particles, as nano-fire retardant, were added to enhance the thermal stability of the obtained biopolymer nanocomposites. PLA and PHB nanocomposites were prepared with a twin screw extruder and characterized with mechanical tests, TGA, and DSC. Densities of the PLA and PHB nanocomposites were found to decrease with the addition of NBN loading. The mechanical properties of biopolymer nanocomposites decreased, except for tensile modulus. According to TGA results, NBN loadings generally improved the thermal stability of the PLA and PHB nanocomposites. The degradation temperature for weight loss at 10 %, 50 % and 85 % (T10%, T50% and T85%) increased with NBN loadings; the value of DTGmax was determined to improve with the loading of BN. DSC results showed that melt temperature (Tm) and crystallization temperature (Tc) generally increased with BN loadings, whereas crystallinity (Xc) decreased with BN loadings in PLA nanocomposites.