In the field of biopolymers, academic and industrial research has focused on the development of sustainable composites or nanocomposites based on aromatic or/and aliphatic polyesters filled with nanoparticles (montmorillonite, layered double hydroxide, mica) or with renewable resources such as cellulose, soy stalk, starch and lignin for various applications such as food packaging or compostable films.1-2 Thus, different ways are investigated to lead to nanostructured polymers with unprecedented properties. Very recently, one innovative pathway is the introduction of ionic liquids (ILs) within polymer matrix.3-4-5 In fact, these organic salts have unique physical-chemical properties such as their inflammability, their low vapour pressure, their excellent thermal and chemical stability and their endless number of cation/anion combinations which make them suitable ideal additives for advanced biopolymers. For these reasons, the combination of the excellent intrinsic properties of phosphonium ionic liquids to biodegradable aliphatic and/or aromatic polyesters such as polylactide (PLA), poly(butylene-adipate-co-terephtalate) (PBAT) have been studied. The influence of the chemical nature of phosphonium ionic liquids (chloride, bistriflimide, phosphinate, carboxylate) has been investigated as new compatibilizing agents of polymer blends blends composed of PBAT / PLA and PBAT / PLA / lignin, as surfactant agents of layered silicates or as structuring agents of the PBAT matrix.

Ionic liquids: New Generation of additives for biopolymers processing

255th National Meeting (2018)

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