Thermoplastic biopolyesters with enhanced engineering properties for innovative industrial, automotive and biomedical applications.

近年来，在全球环境问题、持续的废物处理挑战和消费者对可持续产品的需求的推动下，生物塑料的生产和使用在全球范围内出现了爆炸性增长。与生物塑料在消费和工程应用中得到更广泛接受相关的关键挑战是它们的生产成本高、脆性、热稳定性差、结晶速度慢和熔体强度低，这限制了它们在普通聚合物加工操作下的加工性，并将其应用限制在低价值的商品应用中。 拟议的发现资助研究计划的长期目标是实施经济上可行的、无溶剂的、环境友好的工艺，以获得完全基于生物的产品，这些产品具有优异的工程性能，将作为传统商品和工程聚合物的可靠替代品。根据以下短期目标，该计划将侧重于生物聚合物配方的开发和全面表征，这些配方针对特定的应用领域。 A)开发以生物塑料为基础的化合物和复合材料，作为传统热塑性烯烃和热塑性硫化胶共混物的替代品，适用于汽车应用。 B)生产轻质硬质泡沫塑料(泡沫塑料)，作为传统泡沫塑料的替代品。展望了在汽车和其他工业中的应用，特别是具有优异绝缘性能的纳米泡沫的生产。 C)适用于生物医学应用的生物聚酯型超细纤维和垫子的3D打印/添加剂制造。 拟议的研究计划将培训材料科学、加工和可持续技术方面的高素质人才。 这项研究可以导致生物塑料技术的重大突破，通过开发经济可行、无溶剂、环境友好的工艺来获得完全基于生物的产品，具有良好的工程性能，可以获得广泛的消费者接受，同时提供可持续和环境友好的解决方案。这项研究的结果预计将使加拿大制造商受益，为他们提供创新的材料和工艺，以生产基于新型生物基和/或可生物降解材料的环境友好、高附加值产品。此外，这项研究将产生新的和有价值的科学见解，并将促进在快速增长的添加剂制造/3D打印应用领域开发新材料。

The production and use of bioplastics has seen explosive growth world-wide in recent years driven by global environmental concerns, persistent waste disposal challenges and consumer demand for sustainable products. Key challenges associated with more wide-spread acceptance of bioplastics in consumer and engineering applications are their high production costs, brittle nature, poor thermal stability, slow crystallization rates and low melt strength, which restrict their processability under common polymer processing operations and have limited their applications to low-value, commodity applications. The proposed discovery grant research program has the long term objective to implement economically viable, solvent-free, environmentally friendly processes to obtain fully bio-based products, with excellent engineering properties that will serve as credible replacements to conventional commodity and engineering polymers. The program will focus on the development and full characterization of biopolymer formulations, which target specific areas of application, according to the following short-term objectives. a) Development of bioplastic-based compounds and composites as replacements for conventional thermoplastic olefin and thermoplastic vulcanizate blends, suitable for automotive applications. b) Production of light-weight, rigid cellular plastics (foams), which will be used as replacements of conventional foams. Applications in automotive and other industries are envisioned, with a special focus on the production of nanocellular foams with superior insulating properties. c) 3D printing/additive manufacturing of biopolyester-based microfibers and mats suitable for biomedical applications. The proposed research program will train highly qualified personnel in a wide-array of skills in materials science, processing and sustainable technologies. This research can lead to a great breakthrough in the technology of bioplastics, by developing economically viable, solvent-free, environmentally friendly processes to obtain fully bio-based products, with excellent engineering properties that can gain wide-spread consumer acceptance, while providing a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution. The outcome of this research is expected to benefit Canadian manufacturers by providing them with innovative materials and processes to produce environmentally friendly, high-value-added products based on novel biobased and/or biodegradable materials. Additionally this research will generate new and valuable scientific insights and will foster the development of new materials in the rapidly growing field of additive manufacturing/3D printing applications.