F. Zhang et al., A novel polyethylene-chlorella composite. I. Characterization of chlorellabiologically fixing CO2, J APPL POLY, 77(10), 2000, pp. 2278-2284
Chlorella, a microalga massively produced from biological fixation of CO2,
was investigated to evaluate the possibility of processing it with polyethy
lene. Chlorella grain, a hollow aggregate sphere constituted of chlorella c
ells binding with each other by hydrogen bonds, exhibits a higher thermal s
tability than cellulose and strong resistance to cracking under mechanical
forces up to 150 MPa, possibly due to the spherical structure and unique ma
nner of assembly of chlorella cells. These characteristics of chlorella str
ongly indicate that it can resist deformation and thermal decomposition in
a compounding process with polyethylene. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.