Enhanced impact strength of compatibilized poly(lactic acid)/polyamide 11 blends by a crosslinking agent |
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| Authors: | Byeong-Uk Nam Younggon Son |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Applied Chemical Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education, Cheonan, Chungnam, South Korea;2. Advanced Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Kongju National University, Cheonan, Chungnam, South Korea |
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| Abstract: | Maleated poly(lactic acid) (PLA-g-MA) was prepared through melt grafting of maleic anhydride onto a PLA backbone with the aid of a radical initiator. PLA-g-MA thus formed was incorporated into PLA/polyamide 11 (PA11) blends as a reactive compatibilizer. By morphological observation, it was assessed that PLA-g-MA lowered the interfacial energy and strengthened the interface between PLA and PA11. However, the compatibilized PLA/PA11 blends did not show significant improvement of impact strength compared with noncompatibilized PLA/PA11 blends. Measurements of the molecular weight and impact strength of PLAs compounded with various amounts of radical initiators revealed that decreased molecular weight of PLA by the radical initiator used for the preparation of PLA-g-MA is responsible for this unexpected result. To compensate the decrease of the molecular weight, a crosslinking agent was incorporated in the preparation step of PLA-g-MA. It was found that the crosslinking agent is effective in preventing the molecular weight reduction. As a result, the impact strength of the PLA/PA11 blend was enhanced to a great extent by the PLA-g-MA prepared with the crosslinking agent. |
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| Keywords: | biodegradable blends crosslinking biopolymers and renewable polymers thermoplastics |
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