Poly(vinyl chloride)/Poly(butylene succinate)/wood flour composites: Physical properties and biodegradability

This work aimed to improve the toughness and biodegradability of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) by inclusion of poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and wood flour (WF). The PVC/PBS blends (10–50 wt% PBS) showed a PBS‐dose‐dependent increase in the impact strength, elongation at break, and biodegradability compared to the neat PVC. According to the optimum impact strength and elongation at break, the 80/20 (w/w) PVC/PBS blend was further filled with three loading levels of WF (10, 20, and 30 parts by weight per hundred parts of blend resin). The resulting PVC/PBS/WF composites showed a significant increase in the tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, heat deflection temperature (HDT), water uptake, and biodegradability, but only a slight increase in the hardness and glass transition temperature, accompanied with a decrease in the impact strength, tensile strength, elongation at break, and Vicat softening point compared to the neat 80/20 (w/w) blend. It can be concluded that PBS played an important role both in toughening and increasing the biodegradability of PVC/PBS blends while WF caused an increase in the stiffness, HDT, and also the biodegradability of PVC/PBS/WF composites. POLYM. COMPOS., 39:1543–1552, 2018. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers