Abstract
Biodegradable microfibrillar composites PCL/PLA/C15, where PCL is poly(e-caprolactone), PLA is poly(lactic acid) and C15 is organophilic montmorillonite, have been prepared. Microindentation hardness testing was employed in monitoring the gradual improvement of PCL stiffness due to PLA addition, C15 addition, flow-induced orientation, and changing crystallinity throughout the whole preparation process. Neat PCL after extrusion and injection molding was quite soft, but the stiffness of the material increased after melt-blending with 20 wt.% of PLA, after the addition of 2 wt.% of C15, and after the preparation of the final microfibrillar composite. The indentation modulus and indentation hardness of all intermediate products and the final PCL/PLA/C15 microfibrillar composite were associated not only with the composition and morphology but also with the crystallinity of both components. The modulus of the final PCL/PLA/C15 composite was almost two times higher in comparison with the original PCL matrix.
Highlights
Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) is a biodegradable semicrystalline polyester with the broad range of applications in medicine, packaging, microelectronics or adhesives (Labet and Thielemans, 2009)
All prepared PCL/Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/Cloisite 15A (C15) systems are summarized in Table 1 and their typical morphologies are shown in Figures 2, 3
In the undrawn PCL/PLA/C15 composites, the addition of C15 did not influence the PLA particle size significantly, but the main benefit of C15 was the improved stability of the extrusion process as discussed in the paragraph
Summary
Poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) is a biodegradable semicrystalline polyester with the broad range of applications in medicine, packaging, microelectronics or adhesives (Labet and Thielemans, 2009). In order to predict properties of final anisotropic microfibrillar composites (we note that the above described EBM model was developed for isotropic blends) and the influence of the platelets of organophilic montmorillonite, we employed HalpinTsai equations (HT), which can predict elastic modulus of soft polymer matrices with hard fillers (Nielsen and Landel, 1994): E
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