A Comparative Study on the Mechanical, Thermal and Morphological Characterization of Poly(lactic acid)/Epoxidized Palm Oil Blend

Abstract

In this work, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) a fully biodegradable thermoplastic polymer matrix was melt blended with three different epoxidized palm oil (EPO). The aim of this research was to enhance the flexibility, mechanical and thermal properties of PLA. The blends were prepared at various EPO contents of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt% and characterized. The SEM analysis evidenced successful modification on the neat PLA brittle morphology. Tensile tests indicate that the addition of 1 wt% EPO is sufficient to improve the strength and flexibility compared to neat PLA. Additionally, the flexural and impact properties were also enhanced. Further, DSC analysis showed that the addition of EPO results in a decrease in Tg, which implies an increase in the PLA chain mobility. In the presence of 1 wt% EPO, TGA results revealed significant increase in the thermal stability by 27%. Among the three EPOs used, EPO(3) showed the best mechanical and thermal properties compared to the other EPO’s, with an optimum loading of 1 wt%. Conclusively, EPO showed a promising outcome to overcome the brittleness and improve the overall properties of neat PLA, thus can be considered as a potential plasticizer.

Palm Oil-Based Precursors for Development of Polymeric Delivery System

“…The POo showed a degradation peak at the maximum temperature (T max ) of 440 o C and the POo was fully degraded at higher temperature, 479 o C. Meanwhile, the EPOo showed a slightly lower degradation peak at T max 407 o C than the POo and the precursor was fully degraded at a higher temperature of 523 o C, which is similar to the work reported by Tee et [34] for the peak degradation and was fully degraded at 491 °C and 504.3 °C for the EPO, respectively [34,43]. The presence of oxirane ring have made the EPOo to have a slightly low thermal resistance compared to POo due to the plasticization effect (soft segment) of epoxide [34,44] thus having a lower degradation peak (407 o C) than the POo (at 440 o C). [34,[45][46].…”

Plasticizing Poly(lactic Acid) Using Epoxidized Palm Oil for Environmental Friendly Packaging Material

“…Biodegradable polymer is an environmental friendly polymer and has low toxicity. But, it has lower strength, brittle, flammable and high permeability to most of gases and solvents as compared to metals and ceramics, which limits its applications in industry [2,3]. Reinforcement with additive polymers such as plasticizer and filler can overcome these problems, where the fillers need to be evenly distributed in the polymer matrix to maximize its function [3].…”

Effects of Graphene Nanoplatelets and Reduced Graphene Oxide on Poly(lactic acid) and Plasticized Poly(lactic acid): A Comparative Study

“…However, some of its disadvantages, such as relatively poor mechanical properties and gas barrier, slow crystallization rate and low thermal stability, have limited its wider applications [6]. Therefore, polymer blending and preparation of nanocomposites have often been employed to modify the physical properties of PLA in order to extend the practical applications [7][8][9][10][11]. Various nano-reinforcement fillers, such as layered silicate clay [12], carbon nanotubes [13], and layered double hydroxide [14], are being developed and extensively studied in various polymer matrices.…”