Compatibilization Potential of Ionic Liquid-Based Surfactants for Polymer Blends
Authored
by Ahmad AdlieShamsuri
Opinion
The development of the polymer composites industry
has been very encouraging in the past years. The polymer blends have
also been received considerable attention, this is due to the blends are
easy to prepare, their production cost is low, and so on. At the
present time, bioplastics such as polylactic acid, polyhydroxybutyrate
and polybutylene succinate are gaining consideration due to their
excellent biodegradability, biocompatibility and non-toxicity. Blend
between bioplastics and biopolymers (for example; cellulose, zein and
starch) to produce bioplastic/biopolymer blends have attracted the
researchers’ interest. Besides, the produced bioplastic/biopolymer
blends may also be able to be used in fabrication of biocompatible and
biodegradable products. Moreover, the utilization of expensive synthetic
bioplastics can be reduced through consumption of biopolymers this can
further lower the cost of products [1,2].
Nevertheless, the blend approach suffers from low
physicochemical properties due to incompatibility in the blends
system. The compatibility between the bioplastic and biopolymer is very
low, thus results in reductions of their performance, particularly in
the mechanical, thermal and rheological properties. The incompatibility
is due to the bioplastic which wholly non-polar (hydrophobic) [3], while
the biopolymer is naturally polar (hydrophilic) [4], and therefore the
importance of compatibilization on the blends could not be ignored.
In response to this, the compatibilization methods by
using compatibilizers were frequently carried out to compatibilize
between two different polymers particularly for a better adhesion at
their interface [5]. Previous reports have indicated that the organic
salts such as surface-active agents (surfactants) could also be used as
compatibilizers in polymeric blend
and composite systems specifically for non-polar and polar polymers
[6-8]. This is due to the fact that the surfactants have amphiphilic
character which contained of non-polar and polar parts (hydrophobic and
hydrophilic groups) [9,10] that capable to compatibilize between
non-polar and polar polymers [11]. Thus, they could provide
compatibility between the component phases of bioplastic and biopolymer
in the blends system.
On the other hand, ionic liquids (ILs) are known as
organic salts that have low melting temperature (<100°C). ILs are
non-volatile, highly polar and stable, miscible and soluble with many
organic and/or inorganic compounds, chemically inert as well. ILs are
also non-toxic, recyclable, non-flammable and eco-friendly [12]. The use
of ionic liquid-based surfactants (ILBS) for compatibilization seems to
be remarkable because they have fascinating feature i.e. low melting
temperature compared to ordinary surfactants, this could increase the
compatibilization efficiency.
Additionally, among several types of ILBS,
1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium-based ILs can be employed for
experimentation since they have some valuable characters for instance;
consisted of single long alkyl chain (effective for the
hydrophobic-hydrophobic interaction), environmentally friendly, low
melting temperature, low toxicity and most importantly they are also
thermally stable.
It is expected that the ILBS will improve the
physicochemical properties (mechanical, thermal, rheological, etc.) of
the polymer blends since they have amphiphilic character which can act
as interaction link between non-polar (hydrophobic) and polar
(hydrophilic) polymers, and they can assist them to interact with each
other as well. It is also anticipated to benefit the industries that are
interested.
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