Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) has great potentials to be processed into films for packaging applications. However, film production is difficult to carry out due to the brittleness and low melt strength of PLA. In this investigation, linear PLA (L‐PLA) was plasticized with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) having MW of 1000 g mol−1 in various PEG concentrations (0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt%). In relation to plasticizer content, the impact resistance and crystallinity of L‐PLA was increased, whereas a decrease in glass transition temperature and lower stiffness was observed. Nevertheless, the phase separation has been found in samples which contained PEG greater than 10 wt%. The dynamic and shear rheological studies showed that the plasticized PLA possessed lower viscosity and more pronounced elastic properties than that of pure PLA. Both storage and loss moduli decreased with PEG loading at all frequencies while storage modulus exhibited weak frequency dependence with increasing PEG content. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers

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The melt strength of homopolymer, copolymer and high melt strength (HMS) grades of polypropylene (PP) was measured to assess the sagging resistance of PP for thermoforming applications. Acrylonitrile‐butadiene‐styrene (ABS), which can be easily processed during thermoforming, was also studied in this work. A polymer with high melt strength is considered to have a better sagging resistance. The melt strength measurements were carried out using a Gottfert “Rheotens” melt strength tester. The melt strength of the polymers increased with decreasing temperature and increasing extrusion rate. ABS generally had the highest melt strength in the low extrusion temperature region approaching the thermoforming region, indicating that it has a good sagging resistance during thermoforming. The HMS PP had significantly higher melt strength than conventional PP grades; therefore HMS PP is expected to have an improved sagging resistance. For conventional PP, melt strength was higher for the lower melt flow index (MFI) grades. A sharp increase in the melt strength was observed for conventional PP at low extrusion temperature, probably due to flow‐induced crystallization of the PP. These results indicate that to minimise the sagging problem with conventional PP, low MFI grades should be used and thermoforming should be performed at temperatures close to the melting point of PP.

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