Studies of Poly(L-lactic acid)/Hydroxyapatite Composites Through DSC and XRD

Abstract

Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) is important and biodegradable semi-crystalline polymer with promising application in industry. To estimate the effect of synthesized hydroxyapatite (HA) on the performance of PLLA, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were employed to investigate the crystallization of PLLA/HA composites. DSC showed that HA could accelerate the crystallization of PLLA, and the relationship between HA content and nucleation effect was not linear. However, 10 wt% HA had the best crystallization nucleation effect for PLLA. XRD analysis further confirmed the nucleation effect of HA, and there existed an interesting fact that the intensity of characteristic peak of PLLA/HA after isothermal became weak with an increase of HA content. XRD measurement for PLLA/0.5%HA after different isothermal temperatures showed that the crystallization temperature played important role in crystallization of PLLA.