Abstract
Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) blends were prepared via melt blending technique. Glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) was added as reactive compatibilizer to improve the interfacial adhesion between immiscible phases of PLA and PCL matrices. Tensile test revealed that optimum in elongation at break of approximately 327% achieved when GMA loading was up to 3wt%. Slight drop in tensile strength and tensile modulus at optimum ratio suggested that the blends were tuned to be deformable. Flexural studies showed slight drop in flexural strength and modulus when GMA wt% increases as a result of improved flexibility by finer dispersion of PCL in PLA matrix. Besides, incorporation of GMA in the blends remarkably improved the impact strength. Highest impact strength was achieved (160% compared to pure PLA/PCL blend) when GMA loading was up to 3 wt%. SEM analysis revealed improved interfacial adhesion between PLA/PCL blends in the presence of GMA. Finer dispersion and smooth surface of the specimens were noted as GMA loading increases, indicating that addition of GMA eventually improved the interfacial compatibility of the nonmiscible blend.
Highlights
Over decades, the extreme usage of nonbiodegradable polyolefin-based plastics had raised numerous environmental problems including reproducibility and wastes generation as well, subsequently causing increased volume of commercial and industrial dumps in the landfills [1]
Many solutions have been proposed for management of plastic waste including recycling, landfill disposal, and waste incineration, but none of these have made a significant impact towards the environmental issues caused by the nonbiodegradable plastics
Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/PCL blend with the ratio of 75 : 25 exhibited highest elongation at break compared to other blend ratios, which may due to the introduction of elastomeric PCL into PLA matrix given certain flexibility in the blend
Summary
The extreme usage of nonbiodegradable polyolefin-based plastics had raised numerous environmental problems including reproducibility and wastes generation as well, subsequently causing increased volume of commercial and industrial dumps in the landfills [1]. The promising characteristics of PLA are good mechanical properties, thermal stability, process ability, and low environment impact by being fully biodegradable [4]. The brittleness characteristics as well as its high glass transition temperature at around 60∘C render it to be hard and stiff at room temperature These limit PLA application in various fields [5]; there is a need of modifying the stiff backbone chain of polylactides. The second component usually comprises of elastomeric polymers with superb flexibility such as PCL, PBAT, or PBS in expect to improve the toughness performance of PLA matrix as being reported in several literatures [9,10,11]. PCL exhibited low glass transition temperature, semi crystalline and retained high flexibility at room temperature It is nontoxic suitable for applications in various fields. The effects of the amount of GMA on mechanical properties have been investigated
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