Fully biodegradable PLA composite with improved mechanical properties via 3D printing

Abstract

Poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) is often used as a toughening agent for polylactic acid (PLA) due to its good toughness and biodegradability, but they are immiscible polymer blends. Employing nanocellulose (TOBC) as the stabilizers, we prepare fully biodegradable PLA/PCL/TOBC ternary composites via Pickering emulsion approach here, which is further used for 3D printing. The printed composites are characterized by SEM, XRD, DSC and fluidity analysis. It is found that TOBC exhibits good dispersion in the composites and promotes PLA crystallization via heterogeneous nucleating, while PCL improves the fluidity of PLA chains and increases the toughness of the composites. The effect of PCL content on the mechanical property of the composites is further investigated and the optimal content of PCL is obtained. When PCL content is 10%, the tensile strength and elongation at break of the composites are increased by 17.4% and 208% in comparison with that of neat PLA, respectively.