Crystallization and melting behavior of partially miscible six‐armed poly(l‐lactic acid)/poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyvalerate) blends |
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| Authors: | Ni Jiang Hideki Abe |
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| Affiliation: | Bioplastic Research Team, Biomass Engineering Program Cooperation Division, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Wako‐Shi, Saitama, Japan |
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| Abstract: | The crystallization kinetics and spherulitic morphology of six‐armed poly(L‐lactic acid) (6a‐PLLA)/poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co?3‐hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) crystalline/crystalline partially miscible blends were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry and polarized optical microscopy in this study. Avrami analysis was used to describe the isothermal crystallization process of the neat polymers and their blends. The results suggest that blending had a complex influence on the crystallization rate of the two components during the isothermal crystallization process. Also, the crystallization mechanism of these blends was different from that of the neat polymers. The melting behavior of these blends was also studied after crystallization at various crystallization temperatures. The crystallization of PHBV at 125°C was difficult, so no melting peaks were found. However, it was interesting to find a weak melting peak, which arose from the PHBV component for the 20/80 6a‐PLLA/PHBV blend after crystallization at 125°C, and it is discussed in detail. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42548. |
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| Keywords: | biopolymers and renewable polymers blends differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) morphology |
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