Abstract
The melt blending of polylactic acid (PLA) and thermoplastic silicone polyurethane (TPSiU) elastomer was performed to toughen PLA. The molecular structure, crystallization, thermal properties, compatibility, mechanical properties and rheological properties of the PLA/TPSiU blends of different mass ratios (100/0, 95/5, 90/10, 85/15 and 80/20) were investigated. The results showed that TPSiU was effectively blended into PLA, but no chemical reaction occurred. The addition of TPSiU had no obvious effect on the glass transition temperature and melting temperature of PLA, but slightly reduced the crystallinity of PLA. The morphology and dynamic mechanical analysis results demonstrated the poor thermodynamic compatibility between PLA and TPSiU. Rheological behavior studies showed that PLA/TPSiU melt was typically pseudoplastic fluid. As the content of TPSiU increased, the apparent viscosity of PLA/TPSiU blends showed a trend of rising first and then falling. The addition of TPSiU had a significant effect on the mechanical properties of PLA/TPSiU blends. When the content of TPSiU was 15 wt%, the elongation at break of the PLA/TPSiU blend reached 22.3% (5.0 times that of pure PLA), and the impact strength reached 19.3 kJ/m2 (4.9 times that of pure PLA), suggesting the favorable toughening effect.
Highlights
Use of synthetic plastics derived from petroleum is challenged due to extremely wellknown issues of white pollution
The results showed that with the addition of Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), brittle Polylactic acid (PLA) changed to ductile material, and demonstrated that the blends were partially miscible because of the hydrogen bonding between the molecules of PLA and TPU
The analysis of the thermoplastic silicone polyurethane (TPSiU) infrared spectrum was as follows: the N–H stretching vibration peak of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) was at 3500–3100 cm−1, and the C=O stretching vibration peak was at 1800–1650 cm−1
Summary
Use of synthetic plastics derived from petroleum is challenged due to extremely wellknown issues of white pollution. Polylactic acid (PLA) has been widely considered a potential alternative to replace conventional petroleum-based materials [2,3,4,5,6]. As a renewable resource derived from biomass with appropriate mechanical properties, good biocompatibility and degradability [7,8], PLA has experienced explosive market growth in biomedical materials [9,10,11], industrial packaging [12,13] and other short-time commodity applications [14,15,16]. Several modification methods, such as copolymerization [20,21,22,23], plasticization [24,25,26,27]
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