Extensive Study of the Mechanical Properties of Poly(vinyl alcohol)/ Hydroxypropyl Cellulose Copolymer Blends
Mohamed A. El-Hag
Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Postcode: 12613, Egypt.
Manal T. H. Moselhey
Al-Safwa High Institute of Engineering, Cairo, Egypt.
Osiris W. Guirguis *
Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, Giza, Postcode: 12613, Egypt.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Many researches have been devoted for studying poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) and their blends as important promising biomaterials. In the present work, thin films of pure PVA, pure HPC and their PVA/HPC blends were prepared using the solution casting method. The mechanical properties of the prepared thin films such as stress-strain curve, tensile modulus and tensile strength as well as elongation at break were investigated. The obtained results show that there is an increase in the elastic range and decrease in the hardness of the resulting blends by increasing the concentration of HPC due to the different molecular morphology. In addition, the range in which it would responds elastically to external stress was decreased to some extent.
Keywords: Polymer blends, Poly(vinyl alcohol), hydroxypropyl cellulose, PVA/HPC copolymer blends, mechanical properties