Improvement of Gas Barrier Properties for Biodegradable Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) Nanocomposites with MXene Nanosheets via Biaxial Stretching

In order to ease the white pollution problem, biodegradable packaging materials are highly demanded. In this work, the biodegradable poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)/MXene (PBAT/Ti(3)C(2)T(X)) composite casting films were fabricated by melt mixing. Then, the obtained PBAT/Ti(3)C(2)T(X) composite casting films were biaxially stretched at different stretching ratios so as to reduce the water vapor permeability rate (WVPR) and oxygen transmission rate (OTR). It was expected that the combination of Ti(3)C(2)T(X) nanosheets and biaxial stretching could improve the water vapor and oxygen barrier performance of PBAT films. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation showed that the Ti(3)C(2)T(X) nanosheets had good compatibility with the PBAT matrix. The presence of Ti(3)C(2)T(X) acted as a nucleating agent to promote the crystallinity when the content was lower than 2 wt%. The mechanical tests showed that the incorporation of 1.0 wt% Ti(3)C(2)T(X) improved the tensile stress, elongation at break, and Young’s modulus of the PBAT/Ti(3)C(2)T(X) nanocomposite simultaneously, as compared with those of pure PBAT. The mechanical dynamical tests showed that the presence of Ti(3)C(2)T(X) significantly improved the storage modulus of the PBAT nanocomposite in a glassy state. Compared with pure PBAT, PBAT-1.0 with 1.0 wt% Ti(3)C(2)T(X) exhibited the lowest OTR of 782 cc/m(2)·day and 10.2 g/m(2)·day. The enhancement in gas barrier properties can be attributed to the presence of Ti(3)C(2)T(X) nanosheets, which can increase the effective diffusion path length for gases. With the biaxial stretching, the OTR and WVPR of PBAT-1.0 were further reduced to 732 cc/m(2)·day and 6.5 g/m(2)·day, respectively. The PBAT composite films with enhanced water vapor and water barrier performance exhibit a potential application in green packaging.