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 (M n = 10 4 ,10 5 , and 10 6 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 M n or increasing chitosan contents. However, the size of holes was increased with increasing M n and chitosan contents. The results from Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) present that the melting temperature (T m ) of PBS was decreased with increasing chitosan contents. Moreover, there was no significant difference between T m of the composites with different M n of chitosan. From the TGA thermograms, the decomposition temperature at 10% weight loss (T d10 ) was decreased with increasing chitosan contents. Moreover, the water absorption of PBS/chitosan composites was increased with increasing M n and content of chitosan.