Cover Picture: Macromol. Mater. Eng. 4/2006

Abstract

Cover: The picture on the cover shows polarized photomicrographs of poly(L‐lactic acid) (PLLA) crystallized from the melt in the presence of poly(D‐lactic acid) (PDLA) fullerene C60, montmorillonite, and talc. These additives dramatically increased the spherulite number of PLLA, meaning that these additives can act as promising nucleating agents. Further details can be found in the article by H. Tsuji,* H. Takai, N. Fukuda, and H. Takikawa on page 325.

Amino acids and poly(amino acids) as nucleating agents for poly(lactic acid)

“…For this study, talc particles were used as the reference, since they are a common industrial nucleating agent and, as mentioned in literature, one of the most efficient nucleating agents for PLA [14,17,21,22]. The particles used were 0.6 μm (95% < 3 μm), had a platelet shape and were not coated (Luzenac A3, Imerys Talc).…”

“…Different research groups have experimented with diverse nucleating agents, but many of them concentrated on using stereocomplexes. PLA exhibits the interesting property of forming stereocomplexes from enantiomeric blends of PLLA and PDLA with a melting temperature much higher than the constituting components [14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…After comparing different industrially available nucleating agents, it appeared that talc is the most efficient, beside stereocomplex crystallites [14,17,21,22]. Tsuji et al [17] proposed the following gradation of nucleation efficiency in PLLA (T c = 115.9°C) when 3 wt% of nucleating agent was added: 52 kg mol -1 PDLA (T c = 143.9°C) > talc (T c = 128.3°C) > fullerenes (T c = 126.9°C) > montmorillonite (T c = 120.4°C).…”

“…Tsuji et al [17] proposed the following gradation of nucleation efficiency in PLLA (T c = 115.9°C) when 3 wt% of nucleating agent was added: 52 kg mol -1 PDLA (T c = 143.9°C) > talc (T c = 128.3°C) > fullerenes (T c = 126.9°C) > montmorillonite (T c = 120.4°C). Furthermore, other research groups focused on developing new additives such as self-assembling or chemical nucleating agents [23] like CaCO3, TiO2, BaSO4 [24], hydrazide compounds [25] or ethylene-bis-stearamide [26].…”

Estimation of the Compatibility of Blend Composites of Resins by Measuring the Fluorescent Spectra

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Our group developed additives for PLA, such as a nucleating agent, 22 and a layered silicate for improving the impact strength. 23 On the other hand, to make PLA with a fluorescence function, we added polymers containing diphenylamine with a bridged structure, whose bridge units were monosilane (phenazasiline: PPhenaz, Fig.…”