Preparation of Organo-Montmorillonite Modified Poly(lactic acid) and Properties of Its Blends with Wood Flour.

Ru Liu,Xiaoqian Yin,Erni Ma,Anmin Huang,Chen Wang

doi:10.3390/polym11020204

Abstract

In this study, poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/wood flour (WF) composites were prepared by first blending PLA with organo-montmorillonite (OMMT) at different contents (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 wt %). The physical and mechanical properties of the virgin and OMMT modified PLA and its WF composites were tested. The results showed that: (1) at low OMMT content (<1 wt %), OMMT can uniformly disperse into the PLA matrix with highly exfoliated structures. When the content increased to 1.5 wt %, some aggregations occurred; (2) after a second extruding process, the aggregated OMMT redistributed into PLA and part of OMMT even penetrated into the WF cell wall. However, at the highest OMMT content (2 wt %), aggregates still existed; (3) the highly exfoliated OMMT was beneficial to the physical and mechanical properties of PLA and the WF composites. The optimal group of OMMT-modified PLA was found at an OMMT content of 0.5 wt %, while for the PLA/WF system, the best properties were achieved at an OMMT content of 1.5 wt %.

Highlights

Sustainable and efficient resource utilization becomes more and more important due to the continuously growing demand for resources
As an alternative material for fossil fuels, wood–polymer composites (WPC) are a group of hybrid materials which are prepared from renewable waste wood fiber/flour (WF) and polymer
The crystal (001) plane diffraction peak of Na-MMT was located at 2θ = 6.05◦, corresponding to the d001 value of 1.46 nm

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable and efficient resource utilization becomes more and more important due to the continuously growing demand for resources. As an alternative material for fossil fuels, wood–polymer composites (WPC) are a group of hybrid materials which are prepared from renewable waste wood fiber/flour (WF) and polymer. WF represents superior properties when they are used as reinforcing fillers in a polymer matrix, such as lost cost, non-toxicity, recyclability, high strength, and specific stiffness [1,2,3]. Considering the decreasing fossil resources and increasing amounts of plastic waste, the market for biopolymers is rapidly growing, such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA). Similar to traditional WPC, the properties of PLA/WF composites strongly depend on the compatibility and interfacial adhesion between WF and PLA, which represent one of the main limitations as wood is strongly polar and PLA is nonpolar [9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion