Abstract
Sustainable “green” nanocomposites of polylactide (PLA)/polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) were obtained by slit die extrusion at low temperature. Dispersed PHA inclusions were sheared and longitudinally deformed with simultaneous cooling in a slot capillary which resulted in formation of nanofibers. Shearing at shear rate 300 s-1 of PHA also increased nonisothermal crystallization temperature by 30 C. Tensile deformation was investigated by in-situ experiments in SEM chamber. Dominant deformation mechanism of PLA is crazing, however, the formation of PHA nanofibers contributed to the ductility by diffusing of the existing crazes propagation and initiating the growing of new crazes. PHA nanofibers are additionally spanning PLA craze surfaces and bridging craze gaps when PLA nanofibrils broke at large strain. It revealed that the formation of nanosized PHA fibers results in an increase in ductility, strength and stiffness of PLA.
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