Acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) salami structure inspired PLLA composites with excellent stiffness-toughness balance

Abstract

The stiffness-toughness balance of polymeric materials poses great challenges. Acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene terpolymer (ABS) exhibits excellent mechanical and processing properties due to its unique “salami” morphologies. Inspired by this, we proposed a three-step reactive processing strategy to design high performance polylactide (PLLA) composites with the similar “sub-inclusion” microstructure. The reactive micro-crosslinked elastomer with bifunctional groups (RMCE) was first prepared by the blending of γ-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (KH550) with the random copolymer of ethylene-acrylic ester-glycidyl methacrylate (EGMA). The following mixing of the minor PLLA with the RMCE leads to the double-ended fixing of polylactide molecular chain in the RMCE. The PLLA included reactive micro-crosslinked elastomers (IRCE) were then used to toughen PLLA, inducing the formation of PLLA alloys with the unique sub-inclusion morphology. Surprisingly, magnificent stiffness-toughness balance can be achieved for the obtained PLLA composites. This work opens up a new strategy for preparing high-performance polyester composites with excellent stiffness-toughness balance.