Summary: | A facile approach to prepare bionanocomposites of poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) is reported in this paper. The effect of different wt% of hemp/Sihemp, carbon nanofiber (CNF) and silver nanoparticle (Ag-NPs) on the density, water absorption, melting and crystallization behavior, thermal stability, mechanical properties and morphology was investigated. The density of the composites was reduced except for Ag-NPs reinforced nanocomposites while diffusion coefficient and maximum water absorption were decreased for Sihemp reinforced composites making it a suitable material to replace conventional polymers. Significant improvement in tensile strength (TS) and tensile modulus (TM) was observed for the PBAT/Sihemp composites. For CNF and Ag-NPs reinforced nanocomposites, mechanical properties were retained at lower filler concentration. But as the concentration increased, there was a tendency for the nanofillers to agglomerate, which resulted in a reduction in mechanical properties.
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