Effect of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles on Mechanical and Optical Properties of Bioblend (PLA/PCL)

Abstract

An important development in the plastics industry involves the production of bio-nanocomposites through the combination of metal oxide nanoparticles with polylacticacid (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL). Various quantities of nanoparticles, such as zirconium dioxide (ZrO₂) and magnesium oxide (MgO), were employed to fabricate and analyze different combinations of the PLA/PCL blend. The blend contains 60% PLA and 40% PCL, with different concentrations of nanoparticles ranging between 0%, 0.75%, 1.5%, and 2.5%. The FTIR and mechanical properties study showed a direct correlation between the increase in nano-oxide fraction and the enhancement of tensile strength, tear resistance, elongation at break, and modulus of elasticity. UV-VIS transmission test confirmed that the impact of ZrO2 and MgO NPs have reduced the permeability in contrast to the pure PLA/PCL blend. The increased opacity caused by reinforcement which is responsible for the decrease in permeability. Also, we conducted contact angle measurements for both the reinforced and the pure (PLA/PCL) films. As oxides are hydrophobic, our findings show an obvious connection between the percentage of reinforcements and the rise in contact angle.