Ductile and biodegradable poly (lactic acid) matrix film with layered structure

Abstract

Polylactide (PLA), as a biodegradable packing material, has attracted plenty of attention. However, some problems still limit the application of PLA in packing industry such as the inherent brittleness and low crack propagation resistance. In order to overcome these challenges, we blended PLA with a reactive toughening agent (Ethylene-Acrylic ester-Glycidyl methacrylate terpolymer) during extrusion and film processing. The glycidyl methacrylate groups in toughening agent offered some sites to react with COOH and OH groups of PLA thus leaded to a great interfacial compatibility. The proper compatibility was the premise of adjusting the phase structure of blend and film based on different processing methods. The blend had a sea-island structure after melting extrusion and heat pressed technologies while film formed annular layer structure after film blowing. The structure determined properties. Both the toughness and melt strength of blends had been improved. Moreover, it was interesting to found that tear strength of film with 10% toughening agent dramatically increased to 197.8 KN/m and 137.7 KN/m in the transverse direction (TD) and in the machine direction (MD), respectively. Besides, the elongation at break of film could reach 242.2% in MD. This work exhibited that phase morphology was significant for mechanical performances.