Effects of Molecular Weight of Chitosan on the Biodegradability and Thermal Properties of Polybutylene Succinate/Chitosan Composites

In this study, the biodegradability and thermal properties the composites of polybutylene succinate (PBS) and chitosan of different molecular weights (Mn = 104,105, and 106 Da) were prepared at chitosan contents of 0-10 wt%. After 10 days of microbial degradation, the results show that the amount of holes from degradation was increased with either decreasing Mn or increasing chitosan contents. However, the size of holes was increased with increasing Mn and chitosan contents. The results from Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) present that the melting temperature (Tm) of PBS was decreased with increasing chitosan contents. Moreover, there was no significant difference between Tm of the composites with different Mn of chitosan. From the TGA thermograms, the decomposition temperature at 10% weight loss (Td10) was decreased with increasing chitosan contents. Moreover, the water absorption of PBS/chitosan composites was increased with increasing Mn and content of chitosan.