Biodegradable polymer blends and composites from proteins produced by animal co-product industry.

摘要

Development of new green materials from by-products of animal rendering industries would provide a substantial economic return to animal rendering processors. Meat and bone meal (MBM), one of the products of the rendering industry, has potential for numerous bio-based applications. This research focuses on fabrication of plastics blends made of MBM (Meat and bone meal) and UHMWPE (ultra high molecular weight polyethylene). We investigated thermal, morphological, water absorption and mechanical properties of the plastics. The plastics were compression molded and their properties were examined.;DSC thermographs of the blends indicated that the thermal properties of UHMWPE did not change drastically with increase in MBM content. The tensile strength, elongation of the blends decreased with MBM content where else modulus increased with increase in MBM. MBM/UHWMPE (30/70) blend was found to have the most reproducible and useful properties. Morphology of the blends showed a typical sea and island structure of immiscible blend. The effect of blend composition on water contact angle was also investigated. Contact angle decreased with increase in MBM.