Abstract
Abstract The equilibrium melting temperature (T°) of a polymer is one of the most important thermodynamic properties of crystallizable chain polymers, as it is the reference temperature from which the driving force for crystallization is defined. Polymer blends consisting of polylactic acid (PLA) and ethylene acrylate copolymer (EAC) were prepared by melt blending using a Haake internal mixer. PLA/EAC blends were isothermally crystallized at different crystallization temperatures which were 95, 103, 110, 118, and 125 oC and then characterized for their thermal properties. These were carried out by via a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). DSC thermograms of the crystallized samples showed either one or two melting peaks depending on Tc. The T° of PLA and PLA/EAC blends was estimated via the Hoffman-Weeks extrapolative procedure. An estimated value of T° of 171.76 oC was obtained for pure PLA. As for PLA99/1, PLA95/5, PLA90/10 and PLA80/20 blends the estimated values were 170.43, 167.85, 168.08 and 170.04 oC, respectively. The stability parameter (1/r) for PLA and PLA/EAC blends were comparable and close to 0.3 suggesting that the stability of PLA crystals formed were not affected by the presence on EAC and the crystals were fairly stable.
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