| Abstract: | Microcellular foaming of biodegradable Bionolle in supercritical CO2 has been produced. The effects of a series of variable factors, such as saturation temperature, saturation pressure, and depressurization time and step on the foam structures and density, were studied through measurement of density and SEM observation. The experimental results show that higher saturation temperatures lead to an increase in bulk densities; and different depressurization time and step result in different product cell morphology. In addition, at some saturation temperature, the orientation of the cells can be found in the product morphology. XRD experimental results show that the foaming treatment with SC CO2 increased the crystallinity of Bionolle. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 2901–2906, 2006 |
