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Compatible and crystallization properties of poly(lactic acid)/poly(butylene adipate‐ co ‐terephthalate) blends
Author(s) -
Yeh JenTaut,
Tsou ChiHui,
Huang ChiYuan,
Chen KanNan,
Wu ChinSan,
Chai WanLan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.30907
Subject(s) - differential scanning calorimetry , adipate , crystallinity , materials science , crystallization , glass transition , lactic acid , polymer chemistry , composite material , chemical engineering , polymer , physics , genetics , biology , bacteria , engineering , thermodynamics
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) properties of poly(lactic acid)/ poly(butylene adipate‐ co ‐terephthalate) (PLA/PBAT) specimens suggest that only small amounts of poor PLA and/or PBAT crystals are present in their corresponding melt crystallized specimens. In fact, the percentage crystallinity, peak melting temperature and onset re‐crystallization temperature values of PLA/PBAT specimens reduce gradually as their PBAT contents increase. However, the glass transition temperatures of PLA molecules found by DSC and DMA analysis reduce to the minimum value as the PBAT contents of PLA x PBAT y specimens reach 2.5 wt %. Further morphological and DMA analysis of PLA/PBAT specimens reveal that PBAT molecules are miscible with PLA molecules at PBAT contents equal to or less than 2.5 wt %, since no distinguished phase‐separated PBAT droplets and tan δ transitions were found on fracture surfaces and tan δ curves of PLA/PBAT specimens, respectively. In contrast to PLA, the PBAT specimen exhibits highly deformable properties. After blending proper amounts of PBAT in PLA, the inherent brittle deformation behavior of PLA was successfully improved. Possible reasons accounting for these interesting crystallization, compatible and tensile properties of PLA/PBAT specimens are proposed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010