Mechanical, barrier, and thermal properties of poly(lactic acid)/poly(trimethylene carbonate)/talc composite films

Abstract

Poly(L-lactic acid) (PLA) is now a very attractive polymer for food packaging applications. In this study, PLA/poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC)/talc composite films were prepared by solvent casting. The influence of the talc loading (0, 1, 2, and 3 wt %) on the phase morphology of the PLA/PTMC/talc composites and the improvement in the resulting properties are reported in this article. The scanning electron microscopy images of the composite films demonstrated good compatibility between the PLA and PTMC, whereas talc was not thoroughly distributed in the PLA matrix at talc contents exceeding 3 wt %. The tensile strength and elongation at break of the composite films significantly improved (p < 0.05). On the contrary, the water vapor permeability and oxygen properties of the composite films decreased by 24.7 and 39.2%, respectively, at the 2 wt % talc loading. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the crystallinity of the PLA phase increased with the presence of talc filler in the PLA/PTMC/talc composites. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014, 131, 40016.

Characterization of antimicrobial poly(lactic acid)/poly(trimethylene carbonate) films with cinnamaldehyde

“…The appearance of a second melting peak of PLA at lower temperature in the composites (Fig. 2) was in accordance with the results reported in the literature for PTMC as plasticizer of PLA [15]. As it could be seen, peak crystallization temperature did not show significant differences for the composite films and melting temperature slightly decreased with the increase of cinnamaldehyde amount.…”

“…The results of thermal characteristics are summarized in Table 2. Previous studies indicated that T g of PTMC was -24°C [15]. However, pure PLA exhibited a glass transition around 57°C.…”

“…In our previous study, we have tried to prepare PLA/PTMC blends with various blend ratios (PLA/ PTMC = 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, 60/40, and 50/50 (w/w)). PLA/PTMC (70/30) blend film, which appeared to be softer and more elastic than those with different blend ratios, was selected to use in this study [14,15].…”

Miscibility and isothermal crystallization of poly(L-lactide) and poly(trimethylene carbonate) blends

“…Under neutral conditions (pH 7.4), PTMC and PLLA were miscible, whereas they were immiscible under basic conditions (pH 10.7). In a study on PLA/PTMC/talc composites, Qin et al also discussed the miscibility of PLLA/PTMC [6] . However, to our knowledge, there are still no reports on the crystallization behavior of PLLA/PTMC.…”

“…Poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC) is a biodegradable polymer with good elastic properties at ambient temperatures [1114] . By blending PLLA with PTMC, the brittleness of PLLA can be improved dramatically [6] . An interesting property of PTMC blending is that it can prevent the decrease in pH associated with the biodegradation of PLLA [15] .…”