Development of blood meal protein thermoplastic

Polymers are blended with other polymers to combine their properties or improve physical characteristics and blending turns to be the most reliable techniques compare to synthesis of chemically new polymers. In the research of sustainable materials from non-potential food sources, bloodmeal is one of the best candidates for bioplastic manufacture. It is one of the highest non-synthetic sources of nitrogen coming from meat processing and approximately 80000 tonnes of raw blood is collected annually in New Zealand. Natural polymers often present processing difficulties as well as maintaining product quality over extended periods because of their hydrophilic nature. Blending bloodmeal with other polymers may offer a solution to this problem. However, most blends are immiscible, and the processing are challenging because of dissimilar nature of natural and synthetic polymer, thus requiring compatibilization to achieve good blends performance. The process to solve incompatibility is the compatibilizer should migrate to the interface, reducing the interfacial tension, stabilizing the blend morphology and improving the adhesion between phases in solid state, hence improving the mechanical properties. True thermodynamic term of miscibility of polymer blends is a mixture containing two or more components that form one phase system but this determination of miscibility may be rather ambiguous. In practice, polymer blend compositions is said compatible if they exhibit two phases on a microscopic level but the interactions between polymer groups might be reasonable in a manner that provides useful properties of the multicoponent system. In many instances, it is desirable to have two phases present, as long as we can control the multicomponent systems which depend on their structure, polymer interactions and phase sizes. We have identified several strategies in order to improve miscibility; 1. Addition of a small quantity of a third component that is miscible with both phases 2. Addition of a copolymer whose one part is miscible with one phase and another with another phase 3. Compounding blends in the presence of chemical reactants that lead to modification of at least one macromolecular species (reactive compatibilization), resulting in generation of an in-situ desired quantity of compatibilizer. The propose of this paper is to explore the potential of blending bloodmeal with other thermoplastic by taking account the type of polymer, type of compatibilization and processing condition in order to improve processability and mechanical properties