Strong and tough micro/nanostructured poly(lactic acid) by mimicking the multifunctional hierarchy of shell

Xu, Huan; Xie, Lan; Chen, Jing-Bin; Jiang, Xin; Hsiao, Benjamin S.; Zhong, Gan‐Ji; Fu, Qiang; Li, Zhong‐Ming

doi:10.1039/c4mh00085d

Cited by 59 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…The inferior ductility and toughness of PLA have long been perceived as the impenetrable bottlenecks for widening the applications in packaging and biomedical fields, although exhibiting high strength on a par with poly(ethylene terephthalate) 52 55 . Enhancement of ductility and toughness for PLA, particularly based on industrial processing techniques (e.g., extrusion, injection and compression), represents one important goal for material scientists and engineers in the pursuit of high-performance PLA materials 56 . The traditional approach is compounding PLA with flexible plasticizers such as poly(ethylene glycol) 57 58 and high-toughness polymers such as poly[(butylene succinate)- co -adipate] 59 and polyamide 60 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetic Nanofibrillation in Two-Component Biopolymer Blends with Structural Analogs to Spider Silk

Xie

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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Despite the enormous potential in bioinspired fabrication of high-strength structure by mimicking the spinning process of spider silk, currently accessible routes (e.g., microfluidic and electrospinning approaches) still have substantial function gaps in providing precision control over the nanofibrillar superstructure, crystalline morphology or molecular orientation. Here the concept of biomimetic nanofibrillation, by copying the spiders’ spinning principles, was conceived to build silk-mimicking hierarchies in two-phase biodegradable blends, strategically involving the stepwise integration of elongational shear and high-pressure shear. Phase separation confined on nanoscale, together with deformation of discrete phases and pre-alignment of polymer chains, was triggered in the elongational shear, conferring the readiness for direct nanofibrillation in the latter shearing stage. The orderly aligned nanofibrils, featuring an ultralow diameter of around 100 nm and the “rigid−soft” system crosslinked by nanocrystal domains like silk protein dopes, were secreted by fine nanochannels. The incorporation of multiscale silk-mimicking structures afforded exceptional combination of strength, ductility and toughness for the nanofibrillar polymer composites. The proposed spider spinning-mimicking strategy, offering the biomimetic function integration unattainable with current approaches, may prompt materials scientists to pursue biopolymer mimics of silk with high performance yet light weight.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomimetic Nanofibrillation in Two-Component Biopolymer Blends with Structural Analogs to Spider Silk

Xie

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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“…The isothermally crystallized blends were quenched and etched in the alkaline solution, after which the crystalline morphology was observed by an SE‐4800 SEM (Hitachi, Japan) using an accelerated voltage of 0.5 KeV. The etched samples were sputter‐coated with a 3.5 nm thick gold layer prior to SEM observations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stereocontrolled Entanglement‐Directed Self‐Alignment of Poly(lactic acid) Cylindrites

Geng

Odelius

et al. 2016

Macro Chemistry & Physics

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The concept of stereocontrolled entanglements, in which the tunable H‐bonded chiral pairs serve as crosslinks to create topological constraints on the local chain dynamics, is introduced to tailor the crystalline morphology of stereocomplex poly(lactic acid). For the entanglements to be interconnected and activated, poly(d‐lactic acid) with statistical branched architecture is incorporated, enabling the construction of 3D association with linear poly(l‐lactic acid) chains. With thermodynamically graded disentanglement relaxation for the blends, the profound influence of entanglements on the crystalline morphology is revealed during isothermal crystallization. Orderly aligned cylindrites some with an exceptional length of over 500 μm, resembling the structural features of the classical shish‐kebab superstructure, are observed in the blends penetrated with dense entanglement constraints. By contrast, only dendritic spherulites are formed in the highly disentangled blends. The selectively suppressed homo‐crystallization by the entanglements offers insights into the contribution of constraints. This bottom‐up strategy opens up pathways to engender oriented crystals of long‐range order under quiescent conditions, which has potential implications for other chiral polymers.

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“…As such, bionics is gradually becoming the research focus as it signifies a promising strategy to make materials with generated structures having true three-dimensional order and multiple contributions to the bulk properties [50]. Different nanostructures have been developed using this concept and demonstrated excellent performance in various applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Just for an example, Figure 1 demonstrates the idea of applying shell bionics to develop nanostructural composites with combinations of decent strength, stiffness and toughness. Such a design enables the composites to effectively resist thermal deformation, block UV light and at the same time demonstrate the exceptional mechanical properties [50].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Naturally derived nanostructured materials from biomass for rechargeable lithium/sodium batteries

Yao

2015

Nano Energy

143

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Strong and tough micro/nanostructured poly(lactic acid) by mimicking the multifunctional hierarchy of shell

Abstract: The present work discloses a bioinspired methodology for the unprecedented achievement of simultaneously strong, tough and stiff PLA.

Cited by 59 publications

References 69 publications

Biomimetic Nanofibrillation in Two-Component Biopolymer Blends with Structural Analogs to Spider Silk

Biomimetic Nanofibrillation in Two-Component Biopolymer Blends with Structural Analogs to Spider Silk

Stereocontrolled Entanglement‐Directed Self‐Alignment of Poly(lactic acid) Cylindrites

Naturally derived nanostructured materials from biomass for rechargeable lithium/sodium batteries

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