Toughening of poly(L‐lactide) by melt blending with rubbers

Abstract

Poly(L‐lactide) (PLA) was melt‐blended with four rubber components—ethylene–propylene copolymer, ethylene–acrylic rubber, acrylonitrile–butadiene rubber (NBR), and isoprene rubber (IR)—in an effort to toughen PLA. All the blend samples exhibited distinct phase separation. Amorphous PLA constituted a topologically continuous matrix in which the rubber particles were dispersed. According to Izod impact testing, toughening was achieved only when PLA was blended with NBR, which showed the smallest particle size in its blend samples. In agreement with the morphological analysis, the value of the interfacial tension between the PLA phase and the NBR phase was the lowest, and this suggested that rubber with a high polarity was more suitable for toughening PLA. Under the tensile stress conditions for NBR and IR blend samples, these rubbers displayed no crosslinking and showed a high ability to induce plastic deformation before the break as well as high elongation properties; this suggested that the intrinsic mobility of the rubber was important for the dissipation of the breaking energy. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009

Melt Rheology of Poly(Lactic Acid)/Low Density Polyethylene Polymer Blends

“…Ltd (Shenzhen, China), the selected grade is an extrusion material; it was dried at 70˚C for 6 h before using. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) (SABIC ® LDPE2308TN00) [density = 0.924 g/cm 3 , MFI = 7.5 g/10 min (190˚C/2.16 Kg)] was supplied by Sabic (KSA).…”

“…PLA have been blended with rubbers [3], thermoplastic starch (TPS) [4][5][6][7][8][9], poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) [10], poly(butylene succinate adipate) (PBSA) [11], poly(butylene adipateco-terephthalate) (PBAT) [12][13][14][15], acrilontryl-butadienestyrene (ABS) [16], polypropylene (PP) [17][18][19], and polystyrene (PS) [20,21], to obtain materials with lower cost and improved properties.…”

Toughening of poly(lactic acid) without sacrificing stiffness and strength by melt-blending with polyamide 11 and selective localization of halloysite nanotubes

“…In both cases, diameters of the fibrils are much bigger due to overloading of HNTs and there exist a mismatch between the stretching of PA11 and HNTs alignment during the tensile deforma- Table 4 shows the notched and un-notched Charpy impact strength of PLA/PA11 blend and its nanocomposites. PLA is known for its brittle characteristics; therefore, toughening agents are widely used to enhance the PLA impact strength [35][36][37]. Considering the tensile elongation at break results, PA11 may be expected to be a good candidate for blending with PLA to increase the PLA toughness.…”

Mechanistic insights on nanosilica self-networking inducing ultra-toughness of rubber-modified polylactide-based materials

“…This impedes its applications in some areas particularly like packaging materials. 37,38 Recently, the authors have reported the use of as-synthesized hydrolytically degradable P[CL-co-LA] copolymers as effective biodegradable impact modifiers for PLA. 39 Directly related to a control over the rubbery character of the dispersed phase and the morphological features of resulting blends, an optimum toughening effect was reached using a P[CL-co-LA] copolymer at a relative molar content of 28 mol%LA.…”