Preparation, structure, and performance of poly(lactic acid)/vermiculite‐poly(lactic acid)‐β‐cyclodextrin inclusion complex nanocomposites

Poly(lactic acid) (PLA)‐β‐cyclodextrin (β‐CD) inclusion complexes (PLA‐ICs) were synthesized by ultrasonic coprecipitation with β‐CD and PLA. Furthermore, vermiculite‐PLA‐ICs (VMT‐PLA‐ICs) were synthesized with VMT and PLA‐ICs by a coupling method. Orthogonal experimental analysis exhibited that the optimum preparation conditions of VMT‐PLA‐ICs were as follows: reaction temperature of 60°C, reaction time of 3 h, dosage of coupling agent of 2 wt%, and a mass ratio of VMT and PLA‐ICs of 1:6. PLA/VMT‐PLA‐ICs nanocomposites were prepared with PLA and VMT‐PLA‐ICs by melt blending. Compared with pure PLA, the tensile strength, impact strength, and elongation at break of PLA/VMT‐PLA‐ICs (0.3 wt%) nanocomposites were increased by 8.67%, 54.90%, and 25.67%, respectively. Differential scanning calorimetric curves showed that the addition of VMT‐PLA‐ICs (0.3 wt%) increased the crystallinity of PLA to 34.46% compared with the crystallinity of pure PLA (4.67%). Due to the addition of VMT‐PLA‐ICs, the creep resistance and dimensional stability of PLA/VMT‐PLA‐ICs nanocomposites were improved, and the creep recovery deformation of PLA4 reached from 4.66% to 10.31%.