Effect of sterilization dose on electron beam irradiated biodegradable polymers and coconut fiber based composites

In Brazil, annual production of coconut fruit is 1.5 billion in a cultivated area of 2.7 million ha. Coconut fiber applications as reinforcement for polymer composites, besides reducing the coconut waste, would reduce cost of the composite. On the other hand, biodegradable polymers have been receiving much attention due to the plastic waste problem. Poly(e-caprolactone), PCL, and poly(lactic acid), PLA, besides being biodegradable aliphatic polyesters, are biocompatible polymers. Considering the biomedical application of PLA and PCL, their products must be sterilized for use, and ionizing radiation has been widely used for medical devices sterilization. It is important to study the effect of ionizing radiation on the blends and composites due to the fact that they are based on biocompatible polymers. Is this research, hot pressed samples based on PLA:PCL (80:20, ratio of weight:weight) blend and the composites containing chemically treated or untreated coconut fiber (5, 10%) were irradiated by electron beams and gamma radiation from Co-60 source at doses in the range up to 200 kGy. Thermal mechanical analysis (TMA) and gel fraction measurements were performed in irradiated samples. From TMA curves it can be observed that thermal stability of samples with untreated coconut fiber slightly decreased with increasing fiber content. On the other hand, deformation increased with increasing fiber content. Acetylated coconut fibers slightly decreased thermal stability of samples. It seems that no interaction occurs between the natural fibers and the polymeric matrix due to irradiation. PLLA undergoes to main chain scission under ionizing irradiation according to thermal stability results and also because no gel fraction was observed. In contrast, PCL cross-linking is induced by ionizing radiation that increases thermal stability and decreases deformation. (author)