New Insights on the Strain-Induced Mesophase of Poly(d,l-lactide): In Situ WAXS and DSC Study of the Thermo-Mechanical Stability

Abstract

This work deals with the study of the mesomorphic form or mesophase induced by tensile drawing from the amorphous state of a polylactide material containing 4 mol % of d-stereoisomer units. Investigations have been carried out over the draw temperature domain 45−90 °C, i.e. an interval spanning roughly ±20 °C about the glass transition temperature. In situ WAXS experiments during drawing, stress relaxation, and/or heating of stretched samples invariably showed the strain-induced occurrence of the mesophase as far as temperature did not exceed 70 °C. This seems to be the upper stability temperature of the mesophase identified in a previous study. DSC traces upon heating of drawn samples exhibit a post glass transition endothermic peak similar to the enthalpy relaxation phenomenon observed for aged polymers. The amplitude of this strain-induced endotherm proved to be strongly dependent on draw temperature and draw ratio. Draw ratio also appeared to strongly influence the temperature domain of cold crystalli...