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Ultrasonic Molding of Poly(3-Hydroxybutyrate) and its Clay Nanocomposites: Efficient Micropieces Production with Minimal Material Loss and Degradation

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Submitted:

25 November 2024

Posted:

27 November 2024

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Abstract
Ultrasound micromolding (USM) is an emerging processing technology that offers advantages concerning spatial resolution, material saving, minimum time residence, minimum exposition to high temperatures and low cost. Recent advances have been focused to the point nodal tech-nology, which improves the homogeneity of the molded samples and the repeatability of the properties of processed specimens. The present work demonstrates the suitability of the modi-fied USM technology to process the biodegradable poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (P3HB), which is a polymer that has well reported difficulties to be processed by conventional methods. Specifical-ly, conventional injection and microinjection, and USM technologies with and without point nodal configurations have been compared. Degradation studies and the evaluation of thermal and mechanical properties confirmed the successful preparation of P3HB micro-specimens, maintaining their functional integrity with minimal molecular weight loss. Exfoliated clay structures were observed for P3HB nanocomposites incorporating the C20 and C166 clays and processed by USM. The results point out the advantages of using the modified USM technology since C116 enhanced the P3HB degradation and consequently processed specimens were impos-sible to be obtained by conventional microinjection.
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Subject: Chemistry and Materials Science  -   Materials Science and Technology
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
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