

FOLLOWUS
School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Impact and Safety Engineering, Ministry of Education, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
wangzongbao@nbu.edu.cn
Received:14 July 2025,
Accepted:01 September 2025,
Published Online:12 November 2025,
Published:15 December 2025
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Wu, M. H.; Shi, D.; Zhang, L.; Wang, Z. B. Foaming of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) foams with double melting peaks. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 2413–2421
Ming-Hui Wu, Dan Shi, Li Zhang, et al. Foaming of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate
Wu, M. H.; Shi, D.; Zhang, L.; Wang, Z. B. Foaming of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) foams with double melting peaks. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. 2025, 43, 2413–2421 DOI: 10.1007/s10118-025-3446-z.
Ming-Hui Wu, Dan Shi, Li Zhang, et al. Foaming of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate
Based on the characteristic that P(HB-
co
-HV) eutectic copolymer includes different lamellar structures
a double melting peak structure was achieved by regulating the foaming process
which significantly improved the foamability of P(HB-
co
-HV) and resulted in a foamed material with uniform and dense cellular structure.
Due to environmental concerns and the oil crisis
biodegradable polymer foams have garnered increasing attention. Among all biodegradable materials
Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate
-co-
3-hydroxyvalerate) (P(HB
-co-
HV)) distinguishes itself with the advantage of being biodegradable in all natural environments. However
preparing P(HB
-co-
HV) foam with a fine cellular structure remains challenging. Herein
P(HB
-co-
HV) foams with a double melting peak structure were developed. P(HB
-co-
HV) samples were first heated briefly near the melting temperature to melt most of the crystals
followed by saturation and foaming at a lower temperature (foaming temperature). P(HB
-co-
HV) foams with cell sizes of 7.1−30.0 μm and relative densities ranging from 0.3 to 0.9 were prepared
and the foaming temperature window was as wide as 16 °C. The effect of heat treatment temperature and foaming temperature on the crystallization and cell structure was investigated through DSC and SEM. It was found that the high-melting temperature crystals generated during the saturation step significantly improved the cell structure of P(HB
-co-
HV)
since these crystals can enhance the heterogeneous cell nucleation and hinder the cell growth during foaming. The low-melting temperature crystals were formed during foaming.
In situ
WAXD analysis during heating showed that the high- and low-melting peaks c
orresponded to HV-unit-excluded and HV-unit-included PHB crystals
respectively.
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