{
  "abstract": "Water-soluble poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH) offers high tensile strength and an excellent oxygen barrier, but its dense hydrogen-bond network places its melting point close to its decomposition temperature, making it difficult to melt-process. Poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) is melt-processable and ductile but has low strength and dimensional stability that restrict its use. To combine their strengths, PBAT/PVOH blends (10–40 wt % PBAT) were melt-compounded with a 20 wt % ternary plasticizer of dipentaerythritol, ε-caprolactone, and water in equal parts, benchmarked against a water-only control at 40 wt % PBAT. Across FTIR, XRD, DSC, steady-shear and oscillatory rheology, DMA, tensile, SEM, AFM, TGA, and gas-barrier measurements, the ternary plasticizer governs the structure–property relationship by redistributing the PVOH hydrogen-bond network rather than breaking it; it broadens and shifts the O–H stretching envelope, suppresses PVOH crystallinity and recrystallization, depresses the glass transition by 17–27 °C, and broadens the relaxation spectrum, with no cross-linking or covalent grafting. Composition sets the phase topology─dispersed PBAT domains at 20–30 wt % and a cocontinuous structure at 40 wt %─while the plasticizer controls interfacial adhesion, converting the weakly bonded, void-laden interfaces of the water-only control into well-adhered ones. Among the series, the 20 wt % blend (PBAT-20) gives the best stiffness–toughness balance (modulus ≈ 0.23 GPa, ultimate tensile strength ≈ 20 MPa) together with an oxygen transmission rate of ≈6.4 cm3 m–2 day–1 for a 400 μm film, equivalent to ≈102 cm3 m–2 day–1 when normalized to a 25 μm thickness. The water-vapor transmission rate of the same film remains high (6.06 g m–2 day–1), so the films reported here are suited to oxygen-sensitive but moisture-tolerant applications rather than to moisture-critical ones. These findings position ternary hydrogen-bond engineering as a reaction-free, melt-processing route to property-tunable PBAT/PVOH films for biodegradable flexible packaging.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "University of Portsmouth , , ,"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Sakib Khan"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Abu Saifullah",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7867-8661"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Zhongyi Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Hom N. Dhakal",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6439-3742"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0w6y15z7qvag.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1021/acsomega.6c07788",
  "fulltext_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13718211/?tool=EBI",
  "id": "c0w6y15z7qvag",
  "issns": [
    "2470-1343"
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  "landing_url": "https://pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/11/42/65331/5448636/Structure-Processing-Property-Relationships-in",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Article"
    ],
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      "openalex",
      "2507|Polymer crystallization and properties"
    ]
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  "openalex": "W7221519269",
  "pdf_url": "https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsomega.6c07788",
  "pmcid": "PMC13718211",
  "pmid": "42960051",
  "published": "2026-10-12",
  "publisher": "American Chemical Society (ACS)",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0w6y15z7qvag.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:39Z",
      "native_id": "10.1021/acsomega.6c07788",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/11/42/65331/5448636/Structure-Processing-Property-Relationships-in"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T00:20:36Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13718211",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13718211"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:21:46Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42960051",
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      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42960051"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T12:22:18Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13718211",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.6c07788"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:2507|Polymer crystallization and properties",
      "subfield": "materials-polymers"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Structure–Processing–Property Relationships in PVOH/PBAT Blends Plasticized with Dipentaerythritol, ε-Caprolactone, and Water",
  "title_text": "Structure–Processing–Property Relationships in PVOH/PBAT Blends Plasticized with Dipentaerythritol, ε-Caprolactone, and Water",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-02T12:22:18Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0w6y15z7qvag",
  "venue": "ACS Omega",
  "versions": []
}