The continuously increasing plastic wastes and diminishing fossil resources have attracted global attention into research and development of biodegradable packaging materials. In the present study, organophilic layered double hydroxides (OLDH) intercalated with aliphatic long-chain molecules as reinforcing agents were incorporated into biodegradable poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix by a solution casting method. FTIR, XRD and SEM were performed to analyze the structure of PVA/OLDH films. The OLDH nanosheets were well-dispersed in PVA matrix and formed strong interfacial interactions with the PVA chains, leading to remarkable improvements of optical property, mechanical performance, water vapor barrier property and thermal stability. At a loading of only 2% OLDH in PVA, we observed ~67% decrease in haze and ~66% increment in tensile strength in the composite film compared with pure PVA film. Furthermore, a 24.22% decrease in water vapor permeability (enhancement in water vapor barrier property) due to the addition of 0.5 wt% OLDH and enhanced thermal stability could be observed. These results revealed that the overall performance could be improved by introducing OLDH at very low loadings and that the PVA nanocomposite films have potential for future application in packaging films. Therefore, the use of high-performance PVA/OLDH nanocomposite films can evidently promote the application of biodegradable PVA materials in packaging industry.

•LDH with basal spacing of 4.07 nm was synthesized by high-energy ball milling.•LLDPE composite films with homogeneous LDH dispersion were fabricated.•The properties of LLDPE/LDH composite films were improved.•LLDPE/LDH composite films show superior heat retention property.Novel LDH intercalated with organic aliphatic long-chain anion was large-scale synthesized innovatively by high-energy ball milling in one pot. The linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)/layered double hydroxides (LDH) composite films with enhanced heat retention, thermal, mechanical, optical and water vapor barrier properties were fabricated by melt blending and blowing process. FT IR, XRD, SEM results show that LDH particles were dispersed uniformly in the LLDPE composite films. Particularly, LLDPE composite film with 1% LDH exhibited the optimal performance among all the composite films with a 60.36% enhancement in the water vapor barrier property and a 45.73 °C increase in the temperature of maximum mass loss rate compared with pure LLDPE film. Furthermore, the improved infrared absorbance (1180–914 cm−1) of LLDPE/LDH films revealed the significant enhancement of heat retention. Therefore, this study prompts the application of LLDPE/LDH films as agricultural films with superior heat retention.The fabrication process of LLDPE/LDH composite films.

The synthesis of novel phosphorus–nitrogen synergism aromatic poly(ether sulfone)s was carried out successfully by using phosphorus-containing and nitrogen-containing biphenol-like monomers, 1,1′-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)-metheylene-bispheny-1-oxophosphine oxide (DOPO-PhOH) and 1,2-dihydro-4-(4-hydroxyphenyl)phthalazin-1(2H)-one (DHPZ), in the usual synthesis procedure. Polymers with sufficient molecular weights could be obtained. The structure of the phosphorus–nitrogen containing poly(ether sulfone)s was characterized by means of Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR, 31P NMR). The influence of monomer ratio on their thermal stability was also investigated by adjusting the proportion of DOPO-PhOH/DHPZ (mol/mol) from 80/20 to 20/80. The molecular weight and glass-transition temperatures (Tg′s) of the polymers increased with increasing content of the DHPZ monomer. The high thermal stabilities were depended on the different proportion of diol type incorporated.

In this study, the biopolymer chitosan/vermiculite (VMT) nanocomposites were prepared by the solution mixing process of the cationic biopolymer chitosan with three different modified VMT (HVMT, NVMT, and OVMT), which was treated by hydrochloride, sodium, and cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB), respectively. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) have been employed in the characterization of chitosan/HVMT, chitosan/NVMT, and chitosan/OVMT nanocomposites. Both WAXD data and TEM images of chitosan nanocomposites indicated that the silicate layers were disorderedly dispersed into the chitosan matrix in nano scale. The thermal stability of chitosan/HVMT nanocomposites have the greatest improvements compared to that of neat chitosan, chitosan/NVMT and chitosan/OVMT nanocomposites. It provides a potential approach to prepare high performance and low-cost chitosan nanocomposite.