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Reactive extrusion of PLA and of PLA/carbon nanotubes nanocomposite: processing, characterization and flame retardancy
Author(s) -
Bourbigot Serge,
Fontaine Gaëlle,
Gallos Antoine,
Bellayer Séverine
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
polymers for advanced technologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.61
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1099-1581
pISSN - 1042-7147
DOI - 10.1002/pat.1715
Subject(s) - materials science , reactive extrusion , lactide , nanocomposite , polymerization , polyester , extrusion , polymer , carbon nanotube , chemical engineering , plastics extrusion , polymer chemistry , composite material , engineering
Abstract Aliphatic polyesters such as polylactide (PLA) currently deserve particular attention in the area of environmentally degradable polymer materials. PLA is produced via polymerization of renewable products, namely lactic acid or lactide. In this work, the synthesis of PLA is done by reactive extrusion via ring opening polymerization of L,L ‐lactide using a continuous single‐stage process which is a fast and an easy method. The resulting PLA is fully characterized by solid state NMR. It is shown that it exhibits properties similar to those of PLA synthesized by the traditional methods. A kinetic model based on a phenomenological approach permits one to describe the polymerization of L,L ‐lactide. PLA nanocomposites containing multi‐wall carbon nanotube (MWNT) are also prepared by reactive extrusion. Reaction to fire of PLA nanocomposite shows a slight improvement of the flame retardancy. The nanodispersion characterized by transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) is acceptable but should be improved to obtain the best flame retardancy. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.