8. Clay Nano-Biocomposites Based on PBAT Aromatic Copolyesters

Despite the numerous studies reported on clay-based nano-biocomposites, only few articles concern works on PBAT/clay nano-biocomposites. However, in these studies, a large number of organo-clays has been tested to elaborate PBAT nano-biocomposites. Most of the reported works use the melt-intercalation route to elaborate such nanohybrids materials. According to the morphological analyses, nano-biocomposites with intercalated structures are mainly obtained and clay exfoliation seems difficult to reach in these systems. The best results in terms of clay dispersion and material properties are obtained with organo-clay bearing hydroxyl group and thus having better polarity matching with the matrix. For all intercalated structures, the clay addition has a limited beneficial effect on mechanical and thermal properties whereas the clay platelets dispersion seems to influence the PBAT crystallization with enhanced nucleation. Even if a large majority of the re-ported studies deals with montmorillonite clay, interesting results were also obtained with hectorite.