Correlating the morphology of poly(L-lactide)/poly(butylene succinate)/graphene oxide blends nanocomposites with their crystallization behavior

Abstract

Abstract. Bio-based blend nanocomposites of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), with different concentrations (from 0.1 to 0.5 wt%) of graphene oxide (GO), are prepared via solution dispersion of PBS/GO followed by melt blending with PLLA in a 70/30 PLLA/PBS weight ratio. Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy reveals micron-sized droplets of PBS in the PLLA matrix with the GO nanofiller preferentially found in the PBS phase. The GO acts as nucleating agent for both semicrystalline polymers. The nanofiller nucleating effect is compared to the one of own selfnuclei for each polymer, to define a convenient nucleating efficiency (NE) scale. A value of around 80% is determined for GO towards PBS, among the highest NEs ever reported for this polymer. On the other hand, the efficiency in nucleating PLLA is equal to a modest 15%, also due to the uneven distribution of the nanofiller in the two polymers. A close relationship between the nanocomposite morphology and crystallization behavior of the two different polymers is thus established.

Nucleation and Crystallization in Bio-Based Immiscible Polyester Blends

“…Generally, and depending on their locations, NPs affect the crystallization behavior of the crystallizable components by enhancing the primary nucleation, thus acting as heterogeneous nucleants. [13,[43][44][45]. Examples can be found for instance for PLLA/PBS blends mixed with graphene oxide (GO) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) [44,45].…”

“…Several authors investigated the effect of cooling and heating rates, blend composition and addition of compatibilizers, nanoparticles and nucleating agents on the thermal and crystallization behavior of PLA/PBS blends [15,41,45,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56]. Both non-isothermal with varying cooling rates and isothermal crystallization behavior were investigated, using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and polarized optical microscopy (PLOM).…”

“…On the other hand, only a limited number of works reported the effect of molten PBS in nucleating PLA during the cooling process or melt-crystallization [15,45,49,51]. For example, Yokohara and Yamaguchi [49] found that the addition of small amount of PBS largely increases the number of PLA nuclei, as observed by PLOM, and even enables the crystallization of the polymer during cooling at around 90 °C.…”

Effect of combining cellulose nanocrystals and graphene nanoplatelets on the properties of poly(lactic acid) based films

“…Likewise, other properties such as its gas barrier properties, restrict the complete access of this biopolymer to high-volume industrial sectors like packaging [10]. Common strategies used to overcome the intrinsic drawbacks of PLA include the addition of plasticizers, copolymerization and blending with toughening polymers and the preparation of bio-and nanocomposites [11][12][13].…”

A Novel Approach for the Preparation of Poly(Butylene Succinate) Microparticles

“…[7][8][9][10] Despite that, it must be noted that the literature regarding PBS polymerization is very scarce. Most papers in this field report the manufacture of PBS nanocomposites, [11][12][13] PBS blends, [14][15][16][17][18] PBS-based copolymers, [19][20][21][22] and PBS foams. [23,24] These articles focus mainly on the properties of the resin and not on the PBS production processes.…”