A Facile Fabrication of High Toughness Poly(lactic Acid) via Reactive Extrusion with Poly(butylene Succinate) and Ethylene-Methyl Acrylate-Glycidyl Methacrylate

Abstract

As is an excellent bio-based polymer material, poly(lactic acid) (PLA)’s brittle nature greatly restricts its extensive applications. Herein, poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) was introduced to toughening PLA by melt blending using a self-made triple screw extruder through in situ reactive with ethylene-methyl acrylate-glycidyl methacrylate (EGMA). The effect of EGMA concentrations on the mechanical properties, morphology, interfacial compatibility of PLA/PBS blends were studied. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) results demonstrated that the epoxy group of EGMA reacts with the hydroxyl groups of PLA and PBS, which proved the occurrence of interfacial reactions among the tri-component. The significantly improved compatibility between PLA and PBS after EGMA incorporation was made evident by scanning electron microscope (SEM) characterization results. Meanwhile, the contact angle test predicted that the EGMA was selectively localized at the interface between PLA and PBS, and the result was verified by morphological analysis of cryofracture and etched samples. The EGMA improves the compatibility of PLA/PBS blends, and consequently leads to a significantly increased toughness with the elongation at break occurring 83 times more when 10 wt % EGMA was introduced than neat PLA, while impact strength also enhanced by twentyfold. Ultimately, the toughening mechanism of PLA based polymers was established based on the above analysis, exploring a new way for the extensive application for degradable material.

Development of Injection-Molded Polylactide Pieces with High Toughness by the Addition of Lactic Acid Oligomer and Characterization of Their Shape Memory Behavior

“…As previously indicated, one of the most widely used strategies to improve toughness in PLA-based formulations is blending with rubber-like polymers such as PCL [58], PBS [29,59], or PBAT [60,61]. In these immiscible blends, the energy absorption is related to presence of finely dispersed rubber-like small polymer droplets embedded in the brittle PLA matrix.…”

Super-Toughened Poly(lactic Acid) with Poly(ε-caprolactone) and Ethylene-Methyl Acrylate-Glycidyl Methacrylate by Reactive Melt Blending

“…Wu et al also used the reactive melt blending to fabricate a supertough PLA/poly(butylene-adipate-co-terephtalate) (PBAT)/EMA-GMA multicomponent blend (75 wt %/10 wt %/15 wt %) exhibiting a significantly improved impact strength of 61.9 ± 2.7 kJ/m 2 [39]. Xue et al introduced EMA-GMA and poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) to toughened PLA through an in-situ reaction between different components during the melt processing; the elongation at break and impact strength reached a maximal value of 549.4% and 46.5 kJ/m 2 when 10 wt % and 20 wt % EMA-GMA were added [40]. In addition, a special microstructure was observed for the optimum blend composition in all of the mentioned research, which suggested that the phase morphology played a key role in enhancing the toughness.…”

Thermal, Mechanical and Micromechanical Analysis of PLA/PBAT/POE-g-GMA Extruded Ternary Blends

“…Alternatively, the two phases are dispersed separately into the matrix (Dekkers et al, 1991). The mechanical properties and the rheology of ternary blends are significantly affected by their morphology (Luzinov et al, 1999;Xue et al, 2018). Furthermore, it is important to underline which factors affect the phase structure of multicomponent blends.…”