Toughening of polylactide with natural rubber grafted with poly(butyl acrylate) |
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| Authors: | Chunmei Zhang Changzhen Man Yonghao Pan Weiwei Wang Long Jiang Yi Dan |
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| Affiliation: | State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering of China (Sichuan University), Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China |
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| Abstract: | Natural rubber grafted with poly(butyl acrylate) (NR‐g‐PBA) in an attempt to toughen polylactide (PLA) was prepared by grafting butyl acrylate onto natural rubber (NR) through emulsion polymerization. The purified NR‐g‐PBA was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. NR‐g‐PBA/PLA blend and NR/PLA blend were prepared with a Haake internal melt mixer. The morphology and mechanical properties of the blends were investigated as a function of rubber content. Observations by scanning electron microscopy showed that the spherical‐particle‐dispersed phase appearing in the NR/PLA blend was not found in the NR‐g‐PBA/PLA blend, which showed that NR grafted with PBA is compatible with PLA, and accounted for the efficient toughening effect on PLA. The elongation at break and the impact strength were significantly improved with an increase in NR‐g‐PBA content. The thermal stability of PLA decreased when blended with NR but was retained with NR‐g‐PBA. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry |
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| Keywords: | blend morphology graft copolymers natural rubber polylactide toughness |
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