Magnesium phenylphosphonate: a additive for poly(L-lactic acid)

Abstract

Developing a advanced additive to promote the crystallization of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) is still one of the main challenges for application. Here, magnesium phenylphosphonate (MgP), as a heterogeneous nucleating agent, was prepared to investigate directly its influence on the crystallization behavior and thermal stability of PLLA via a combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The relevant results, from measurements of non-isothermal crystallization, the glass transition temperature, and XRD after melt crystallization, revealed that the MgP had excellent acceleration effectiveness in the melt crystallization of PLLA, and PLLA–0.7% MgP exhibited the sharpest non-isothermal crystallization peak and the highest non-isothermal crystallization enthalpy, suggesting that 0.7 wt% MgP is the optimal concentration in the PLLA matrix. In addition, these measurements also indicated that the incorporation of MgP could not change the crystal form of PLLA, and the non-isothermal crystallization behavior of PLLA–0.7% MgP did not have a significant relationship with the set final melting temperature. The melting behavior after non-isothermal crystallization further confirmed the crystallization-promoting effect of MgP for PLLA, and the second heating rate significantly affected the melting behavior of PLLA–MgP samples, resulting from the effect of heating rate on formation of crystallites. Thermal stability measurement showed that the addition of MgP could not change the thermal decomposition behavior of the primary PLLA, though MgP exhibited completely different thermal decomposition behavior. Furthermore, the influence of MgP concentration on the thermal decomposition temperatures of PLLA–MgP samples is negligible.