Viscoelastic Properties of Fully Biomass-Based Transparent Plastic Comprising Cellulose Acetate and Citrate Ester

Viscoelastic properties including melt processability were evaluated for a fully biomass-based glassy plastic comprising cellulose acetate (CA) and triethyl citrate (TEC). The TEC exerted an excellent plasticizing effect without dissolving the CA crystals. Pure CA has poor melt processability. In contrast, the TEC-plasticized CA had good melt-processability at 205 °C, which is lower than the degradation temperature of CA. Extrusion was possible even at 1000 s-1 without any flow instabilities, similar to conventional plastics showing good processability at extrusion. Furthermore, there was marked strain-hardening behavior in the transient elongational viscosity, suggesting that various processing operations are possible, such as a long-chain branched polymer. This biomass-based plastic can be used as a substitute for conventional glassy plastics because it is highly transparent and its softening temperature is above 100 °C.